Shadowed Leaf
by Warwolf
Summary: After three years abroad, Naruto has returned to Konoha, intent on retrieving Sasuke. What he never expected to find was a Ninja from a faroff country, who regards herself as his. What is her mysterious connection to him? NarutoxOC. Possible NarutoxTemari
1. Who is She?

**_Shadowed Leaf_**

A Naruto Fanfiction 

by Marc Weinstein 

Standard disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters or settings created by Masashi Kishimoto. All original characters and lands and the like however, are mine. 

Author's note: 

That's right gang. 

I'm BAAAAAAAAACK! 

See the post-notes for more information on why I've been gone for so long, and awaaaay we go!

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto smiled as he continued his trek alongside his perverted sensei Jiraiya. After three long years, he was about to reach the gates of Konohagakure no Sato- The Village Hidden in the Leaves. The home he hadn't seen in thirty six long months. 

The three year trip had done Naruto a world of change. Although he still wore orange, it was no longer so bright that you could see it from space, and now sported black as it's trim rather than blue. He had grown considerably, losing his baby fat and his hair, though still wild, no longer looked like a spiky sea urchin. In all truth, he now more than ever, greatly resembled Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage. 

"So Naruto, You planning to celebrate now that you're back home? You've been more rambunctious than I've seen you in a long while. You've been talking about being home again almost non-stop since we headed out." The perverted old toad Sanin asked with a smirk. 

"You gotta ask? I'm going straight to Ichiraku's, and then I'm gonna go see everyone, and give Obaa-chan the good news that the next Hokage is back in town, Believe it!" The blonde said with a smile and a laugh, pumping his fist into the air. 

While Jiraiya and Naruto were laughing their way home, however, something that would shake the very foundations of everything Naruto knew was occurring at the gates of Konoha. 

It wouldn't seem like much at all. Just another boring day for the two nin posted at the gates to Konoha. Visitors came in, Ninja went out. Occasionally some stopped to chat with the guards or vice versa. In all truth, there hadn't been much of _any_ kind of trouble since the Chuunin exams three years ago when Orochimaru duped the Hidden Sand into aiding in an invasion of Leaf. So when the stranger walked through the gates giving off an aura of such tight control and giving off a coldness not seen in the village since Uchiha Itachi, their hackles immediately went up, as did their guard. 

"Hold it." One of the two guards said. "State your business." The other readied a Kunai in case things got violent. For a few moments the stranger in the cloak gave no indication that he- or was it a she?- had even heard them. The guard was about to repeat his demand when suddenly a slip of paper was held in front of his face. He hadn't even seen the stranger move. But he took the paper nevertheless and looked it over. His eyes widened, prompting a confused, questioning look from his comrade. 

"Let'im through." He said. "According to this, we have a visiting Nin from an old allied village that hasn't been in contact with Hi no Kuni in over fifteen years. Here to see the Hokage." Nodding, the other guard holstered his Kunai. 

"Hokage tower is near the center of town. If you want, we can get you an ANBU escort." the now unarmed guard stated, to which the stranger nodded silently. A few minutes later, the ANBU, and the still unidentified stranger were on their way towards the office of Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage. A few minutes later, the two were back at their station, conversing between one another. 

"So where's he...she...whatever. Where's that Nin from?" Asked the still somewhat confused second guard. 

"Believe it or not, _Kurayami no Kuni_." Said the first which made the second sit up and take notice. And with good reason. _Kurayami no Kuni_- known to some as simply the Land of Darkness- was a land far to the west of Earth and Wind Country. It was practically uncharted territory that only those few who were willing to venture to the strange land would go. The First Hokage had brokered an alliance with it's shinobi village, the mysterious _Kagegakure no Sato_- The Village Hidden Within the Shadows- shortly after founding Konoha. It was said to be the unknown Sixth Great Shinobi Nation. However no Daimyo presided over it, and little was known about who actually ruled that country. What was known was that the leader of Kage was called the Ketsukage- The Blood Shadow. It was also known that Kage had never send Ninja out to any of the exams for promotion, preferring to hold it's own personal exams for it's Nins. Although the country and village were quite large, they felt they weren't truly involved with the other Ninja villages because of the fact that at least two other countries separated Kurayami no Kuni from the rest of the Shinobi nations: Kinzoku no Kuni- The Land of Metal, and Ameori no Kuni- The Land of the Rainforests. Both countries were separated from the rest of the known Shinobi world by a massive valley of mountains, and travel between Kage and any other nation would take well over a week and a half just to cross the two countries to get to the mountains, followed by another week to cross the mountainous region that brought one to the rest of the Shinobi nations. As such, to see a nin from Kage in this part of the world was exceedingly rare. 

"Tsunade-sama's gonna have a conniption fit over this, you know that right?" 

The two could only chuckle at that. As such, they only barely registered a pair of Nin enter, and it took them half a moment to register who it was, and then did a dual double-take. 

"Was that-" 

"Yeah." 

"He's changed. I barely recognized him." 

"Tsunade-sama's gonna want to hear about this." A grin and a pair of light chuckles. "Let's give him a bit to settle in first."

* * *

Naruto was feeling fairly content with life. After three years he was home. He had successfully completed his training under Jiraiya and he was of the belief that he had grown significantly as a fighter and as a person. He still had that manic personality, but it was somewhat calmer, more subdued, and even a bit more mature. He'd gotten a chance to meet with Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon, and gotten the chance to see his old teammate Sakura again. And even in that, Naruto realized that he had changed. While he still cared for Sakura, it was no longer the feeling of a twelve year old crush. Sakura was more like family now than a potential girlfriend- though there was still some of his old infatuation there, so he supposed that this could very well change in the future, barring anything impeding it. About all he really hadn't gotten the chance to do yet was to visit Tsunade, who he had been told had been very busy due to the arrival of some nin from a country he hadn't even _heard_ of. Ah well. Later then. Actually, probably tomorrow. He just hoped that this visitor wasn't some messenger nin delivering a declaration of war. It was bad enough having fought a mini-wars during Orochimaru's attempt at annihilating the village. Between that and his promise to retrieve Sasuke from the snake bastard, he _really_ didn't want to end up being told he'd have to fight an entirely unknown quantity in the form of Shinobi from a country whose name had never even been uttered in his classes at the academy before. 

_knock knock_

Naruto turned towards the door to the outside of the apartment complex in which he lived in surprise. Who could that be? Nobody outside of a small, select few even knew he was back. He strode to the door as another knock sounded and opened it. Just beyond the portal to the world outside his home, was a familiar looking Chuunin, with a scar over his nose. 

"Iruka-sensei! What brings you here so late in the day?" The blonde said with a wide smile. he hadn't seen Iruka since the funeral for the Sandaime Hokage. The man was like the older brother he'd never had, and the feeling was- despite appearances during his time at the academy- mutual on Iruka's part. The brown haired teacher simply smiled wryly before replying. 

"Wish I could say it was a social visit, Naruto, but I actually came here because Tsunade-sama needs to see you. Said it was really important. I happened to be at the tower after handing out a few missions to the old crew and she asked me to bring you over." 

Naruto blinked. he had planned on seeing Tsunade as soon as was possible, but figured she was still busy with stuff. Now she was requesting he show up at Hokage tower? This was either for a mission that only he could handle, or else she just wanted to slug him for that prank he'd pulled before he left for the trip with Jiraiya. Probably both. He smiled a bit, though mentally gulped at the thought of the Hokage's freakish strength, and nodded. "Sure, lead the way." he replied.

* * *

She didn't need this shit. 

She _really_ didn't need this shit. Not now. She had been Hokage for three years now. And beyond remembering that paperwork was the bane of the existence of every Kage in every village, what Tsunade hated the most was weird-ass surprises that came out of nowhere and blindsided her. Konoha had a vast information network. Jiraiya, her fellow Sanin, had one that actually put that of the village itself to shame. And to think, she spent all this time getting a party ready for Naruto's birthday tonight, and now this! 

Well, at least this meant he was getting a present early. 

... 

... 

... 

Sort of. 

The cause of the Hokage's current migraine-in-the-offing was the cloaked Nin standing in front of her desk. Said Nin hadn't moved an inch since arriving and handing her a very interesting set of scrolls. She was just about to snap at said shinobi to at least sit the hell down because she was creeping her out when a knock sounded at the door, followed by the immediate entrance of Iruka and Naruto, and Tsunade broke into a grin for the first time all day. Her surrogate brother was home, and he looked to have grown up very well. He'd lost the baby fat, and while he still wore orange, it wasn't 'kill me' orange. He had a confidence to his gait that was no longer just brash recklessness, and his blue eyes sparkled in mirth at seeing her again. He grinned, and then fairly launched himself at her, much to her shock, grabbing the Sannin in a hug, which after half a second, Tsunade returned with a chuckle. 

"Welcome home, ya brat." she said, ruffling his sun-kissed hair. He just smiled as he let go of the hug and then laughed as he replied with an irreverent "Look who's talking, ya old hag!" Tsunade was tempted to nail him to the wall for calling her old, but just smirked and mentally waved it off. 

"So, what is it you wanted to see me about? I figured you were gonna be busy all day and I didn't think you needed me for any missions just yet, seeing as I've been gone for so long and all." 

Tsunade's smile faltered a bit and she sat back down even as Naruto had rounded the desk and had given a glance to the odd, cloaked figure who was watching his every move. All he could make out of this person was a pair of eyes the same color as darkness itself, with no whites. It almost looked like a reverse Byakugan, which was, obviously, all white. But at least with the Byakugan you could determine the regular whites of the eyes from the cornea! In all honesty, it creeped him the fuck out. 

The two stared at each other for a moment. Tsunade cleared her throat and the two turned back to the Hokage. 

"First off, Naruto, I'll be honest when I say I don't understand too much of this situation yet but this Nin came here from Kurayami no Kuni. The Land of Darkness isn't often spoken of here in Konoha because the country is so far away and because Iwa has been trying to find a way to close off the one known pathway to that country, though they haven't had much success. The Land of Darkness plays home to Kagegakure no Sato." Naruto boggled for a moment at the name, which caused a stronger smile to form on Tsunade's face. Shizune, the loyal assistant to Tsunade for years on end, also smiled. Naruto was so fun to watch when he made such ridiculous faces. But that was always just going to be part of him. They both just had that feeling. Tsunade was reminded vividly of Naruto's father. She still wasn't sure why he had never referred to him as this. But then again, she frowned mentally. It was very possible that Naruto didn't even _know_ of his own heritage. There weren't too many who did, but she had been almost sure her sensei, who had looked at the boy as like a second grandson, would have...but with the enemies Minato had gained over the years... 

"Kage allied itself with Konoha just after it was founded by the Shodaime. However because of the excessively long trek between the two nations, the alliance was tenuous at best. They also had an alliance with Suna, though I have no idea if this holds true anymore. Suna is actually closer to them than we are, but all I know for certain is that they still consider themselves allies of the Leaf." She then gestured to the Nin beside Naruto. 

"This Nin is Okami Athan. And...well...I guess you can call this something of a birthday present..." Tsunade said. Naruto's eyes widened. He had COMPLETELY forgotten what today was! But then his eyes narrowed as he turned towards Athan, as Tsunade had named this strange Nin. Said nin 's cloak fell away, revealing a girl who he guessed to be about his age, with a facemask that resembled Kakashi's, and a weird looking Hitai-ate. Her hair was stark silver. And looked much more shiny than Kakashi's. She wore protective armor, but it was fairly clear that she was already possessed of a good figure, though there was no question she took the job seriously. 

She dropped to one knee, a palm on the floor and head bowed in his direction. 

"Ohayo...Uzumaki-dono...It is an honor to finally be in your presence." she said in a surprisingly attractive voice. Again Naruto boggled. This time at the honorific she had attached to his name. _Uzumaki-DONO?! _He thought in shock. Whatever comment he was about to throw out to vocalize his stunned disbelief was lost as Tsunade decided to finish what she was saying before Athan introduced herself. 

"She's here because according to a very large amount of things I don't even know where to start getting into and because of her people's religious practices...she belongs to you."

* * *

Glossary for those who need it (Or just want a reminder): 

Shodaime Hokage- First Hokage   
Sandaime Hokage- Third Hokage   
Yondaime Hokage- Fourth Hokage   
Godaime Hokage- Fifth Hokage   
Sannin- Legendary Three Ninja   
Hokage- Fire Shadow   
Ketsukage- Blood Shadow   
Konohagakure no Sato- The Village Hidden in the Leaves   
Kinzoku no Kuni- The Land of Metal   
Ameori no Kuni- The Land of the Rainforests   
Kurayami no Kuni- The Land of Darkness   
Kagegakure no Sato- The Village Hidden within the Shadows   
Okami- Wolf   
Hitai-ate- Forehead protector   
Athan- This is actually not a Japanese word, it is Greek, and means Immortal. 

**_The Unenviable Author's post-notes!_**: 

Yes, after a two year absence from the fanfiction scene, I have returned. I know, I know. Most of you want to smack me for not updating my Nuku Nuku fic sooner. But I have a valid excuse. Over the last few years, I've been working on writing a book and getting it published. I ultimately had to get it self published in a VERY small POD print run. I'm still trying to sell the copies I have, as they were all shipped to me from the manufacturers. It's the first of a series, and shortly after I succeeded in getting the first book published, I began work on the second, and promptly ran out of a way to get my ideas for the second book in the series from my brain to the word processor, so I began working on the third book in the series, and I've been gathering research materials for it. During this time, I got kinda plugged into watching Naruto. I decided to make my grand return with the start of a new fic. 

I should note that I was inspired to use the name Athan from reading _A Time for Wild Horses _by Jose Argao, when he explained what the word was from and what it meant. But no, this is not a crossover fic. ...Not _yet_ at least, and at the moment it's not intended to be. This might change during the course of writing it. 

Anyway, I hope to get the next chapter out soon. This was just the start of what I hope will be my longest fanfic ever. 

Also, anyone interested in buying a copy of the book, email me! 

At this point Godzilla pops up and waves 

Godzilla: Don't forget to review! 


	2. The New Girl

**_Shadowed Leaf_**

A Naruto Fanfiction 

by Marc Weinstein 

Chapter 2 

The New Girl

* * *

Naruto stared. He stared at Tsunade. And he was staring at her because there was no way he had just heard what he thought he'd heard. And the blonde Sannin-cum-Hokage had a pretty good idea of what her surrogate brother/son was likely to say next, and for once, she guessed right. 

"...Say that again?" He said to her. His disbelief was clearly evident, and she honestly couldn't fault him for this. She was, quite frankly, more than a little unnerved by this herself. Then again this kind of thing wasn't entirely unheard of. Indentured servants came from all over the place. But this...this was something else altogether different. 

"Weird as it may sound, Naruto, according to the beliefs of her people...you essentially _own_ her." she said, picking up one of the scrolls. "There's a lot to it that supposedly only she knows. But the bottom line of it is that according to this, her people actually _worshipped _the Kyuubi for some reason or another." Naruto's eyes went wider than it seemed possible to go on the skull of a human being. "Yeah, I know. I'm not entirely sure why. That's supposed to be in _this_ scroll, but according to the first one I got from out neighbors beyond Iwa and Suna, I'm not allowed to open this without permission from _you_." Naruto looked dumbfounded but nodded. Taking this as assent, Tsunade tried to break open the seal. But it flashed an angry red and pulsed with a minor amount of Chakra, causing her to drop it to the desk as if it had given her a mild case of static electric shock. "What the...?" Naruto and Tsunade said simultaneously. Scrolls didn't behave like this. Not unless the scroll was some kind of trap laid down by an enemy. But the scroll, aside from giving the blonde Sannin a minor jolt, showed no signs of being dangerous. In truth, it looked sickeningly innocent. In as much as a non sentient, inanimate object can. 

"You must give verbal consent and channel your Chakra into the seal on the scroll to give Hokage-sama permission to open the scroll, Uzumaki-dono." came the silk soft voice of the girl, still kneeling before him. This caused everyone in the room to jump. Despite talking about her while she was in the room, her position of supplication had more or less put her out of the 'mental view' of everyone including Naruto, and as such they'd forgotten she was still there. But the two blondes quickly nodded to one another. 

"Permission granted." Naruto said, reaching over to the scroll and charging some of his choker into the seal which held the seal shut. And the seal abruptly vanished, falling away into nothingness. Tsunade promptly picked the scroll back up and opened it, beginning to scan it's contents. And Naruto was starting to get a very creeping sensation prickling down the back of his spine. Whatever was in that scroll had to be something big, because Tsunade was getting paler, and paler and paler as she read. 

"Baa-Chan? What's the matter?" He asked. Tsunade just looked up and then rolled the scroll up and tucked it into a drawer, having finished reading it a moment before Naruto had voiced the question. 

"Nothing you should worry about tonight. It's your birthday after all. I'll tell you tomorrow." She replied. Naruto looked like he was going to argue the point, but she smirked, the color returning to her face. "Besides, you have more important things to do." 

"Like what?" Naruto asked curiously. 

"You'll see. By the way." She scribbled down an address on a piece of paper. "You need to go to this address at about seven tonight." 

Naruto blinked at the address. He knew the general area but he'd never been there. It was just on the outskirts of the more wealthy district of town, somewhere smack dab in the middle of the various clan estates. He narrowed his eyes a bit at the information. Athan, who was watching him from her kneeling position noticed the action and tilted her head. 

"Something wrong, Uzumaki-dono?" She asked. 

"Depends on your definition of that." He remarked offhandedly, not surprised by the strange girl speaking this time. "It's just...I dunno Baa-chan. Isn't this place pretty much the ritziest part of town? I thought that the village held that damned festival there every year." The last part came out fairly bitterly, remembering how, compared to how bad he was treated normally by the village when he'd been younger- enough that he'd turned to pranks and practical jokes as an outlet for his need to strike back at his tormentors (and once he'd started doing it it had gotten fun, and he'd realized it made for great training opportunities in his desire to become a shinobi), that it got ten times worse during his birthday. Of course, now he was older, somewhat wiser, at least a little bit mature (though also a bit perverted thanks to Jiraiya's influence), but he still hated that festival with a passion. 

"Not this time. And never again truth be told. I've banned the festival, on the grounds that it's lead to repeated attacks against an innocent civilian of the village. It wasn't a popular choice, but even the council couldn't argue the point once I..._persuaded_ them that they were out of line by attempting to claim otherwise despite legitimate reports of said attacks." Tsunade quirked a grin. Naruto, goggle eyed, stared at her for a moment or two, before he all but seemed to teleport across the desk, grabbing the blonde Sannin in a hug that had strength that surprised even her. Athan pulled herself to her feet instantly and looked like she was about to leap to _attack_ Tsunade until she realized that Naruto was decidedly _NOT _classifying her as an enemy. 

Tsunade, after a moment's shock at the speed at which Naruto moved- really she would've sworn, if she hadn't known any better, that he had suddenly come up with a completely self reliant version of the Hiraishin!- chuckled and returned the hug with one of her own. "Easy brat. You just about broke my ribs." 

"Ah, you can take it. You're supposed to be the strongest Ninja around- after me of course- or else ya wouldn't be Hokage right now, now wouldja?" he teased. Tsunade would have decked him, but for the fact that she'd seen how quickly Athan had moved. There was no doubt in her mind that if she did anything that would make the Kage girl consider her a threat to her new master, she would do her level best to take Tsunade apart piece by piece, and if what she'd read in that scroll was even partially truthful, she probably could make a credible attempt at it. She just gave him a mild- for her- flick on the nose, to which Naruto gave a somewhat overdramatic yelp and a loud "Hey, watch the schnozz, ya old hag!" which sent her eyebrow twitching. Athan however...looked rather nonplused by all of it. As if she had no idea whether or not to step in and attack or not. Something that seemed to hold up a bit of what was in that new scroll. If so, she felt sorry for the girl. 

"Well, seeing as you have a few hours free, you should show Athan around. We also need to get her a proper Hitai-ate. According to that first scroll, her allegiance is first and foremost to whatever organization or village you do, and as you've made it plain and obvious your desire to one day be Hokage, I'm pretty sure she can guess what that means." Tsunade said with a wry grin. 

"I can get one from the next room, Hokage-sama." Iruka said from where he was standing near the door. She nodded. And he walked out to the hallway and into the next room. He came back a few minutes later with a just recently constructed headband. Like Naruto's old one had been, it was set on a blue cloth. She took the piece of clothing, and stared at it for a few moments, then looked at Iruka, then Naruto and then Shizune and Tsunade. Then she tied it around her right arm, went through a few hand signs at a fairly impressive speed, and the plate on the front her own Hitai-ate, which worked as a full covering for her head, save for her long flowing silver hair which snaked to just about mid-back, began to glow, and then the image of Konoha, set in shadow, rather than carved into the metal itself, faded into view. The Leaf nins stared. It wasn't an illusion. The symbol was really there, but it was as if it was made in such a way that should the need arise, the insignia could be changed at any time. She turned to Naruto after she had finished her work. 

"Does this meet with your approval, Uzumaki-dono?" she asked simply. At about this time, everyone present really took notice of the fact that she had yet to show any real emotion. No signs of emotional inflection tinted her voice, up until this moment, as she was clearly hoping that she had done the right thing by this odd act. Naruto just gave her a dumbfounded look and a quiet nod. 

_Damn, I need to learn that!_ He thought to himself. 

"Well...now that you've gotten yourself a proper Headband, I guess you should just stick with Naruto for now. Naruto, you'll want to introduce her to your friends obviously, seeing as she is your property now," She held up a hand to forestall him when she saw him start in shock and open his mouth to object to this. "I can't do anything about it Naruto. They called this in as part of their alliance with us, and she appears to be entirely willing to be your Vassal. She'll be moving in with you." Again he looked dumbfounded, and then blushed. Which was understandable. If the way the armor she wore was any indication, she was actually concealing her real figure, and Tsunade had a feeling that she would be trained enough that she was no weakling, but would still have a body most girls in the village would have killed for. _Hmm. Note to self. Make sure that girl has enough clothes that she doesn't have to wear that armor 24/7._ She mused. _And make sure she doesn't try to...wait what am I saying. I don't think either of them would do anything like that. Naruto's probably had some of Jiraiya's habits rub off on him, but I don't think he got THAT much of the old perv's attitude in him...as for Athan...if what I read is true, I don't even think the idea would cross her mind unless it somehow came up in a discussion._

"See you at Seven. Both of you. Dismissed." She said. The two of them bowed and turned for the door, Athan behind and a bit to the right of Naruto. "Oh, one last thing." She added. The two turned around to face her. "Formal wear. If that means you need to buy some, do it. I've already added a substantial amount to your funds Naruto. Your training was listed as an A to possible S rank mission, seeing as part of the reason you went out is to get strong enough to be able to stand a chance against Akatsuki, but also Orochimaru, and to potentially restore Sasuke into Konoha's hands." Naruto's eyes went into their semi-trademark squint expression, but he nodded. Athan showed no reaction as she also nodded, then turned and followed Naruto out.

* * *

News traveled fast among the Ninja of Konoha. The return of Naruto had been easy to spot, given that one of the first things he had done was to leap onto a nearly twenty foot lamp post and looked the town over. One of the first people to meet him upon his return had been Sakura. She had known Naruto was returning soon, and she and the others had made plans for it. But she hadn't expected everything to fall so easily into place. She had rushed off to gather the rest of the Konoha Eleven, which was what the small group had come to call themselves. This group consisted of the 'Rookie Nine'- the graduating class of the majority of the Konoha nins who had made it to the preliminaries of the third round of the Chunin Exams, plus the three of the year before. Counting Sasuke, they had numbered twelve, but upon his defection, that number dropped to eleven. Also in town happened to be a trio of visitors from Kaze no Kuni- Wind Country. Three Nins whom Naruto and the Konoha Eleven were well acquainted with: Kankuro, Temari, and Sabaku no Gaara, who as it turned out, had become the Kazekage of Sunagakure no Sato- the Village Hidden in the Sand. 

As a result, most of the group was out finalizing their plans for the occurrence of Naruto's return. All save for one. Hyuuga Hinata. 

Now unless you've never seen the series itself, or have only seen a small bit of it, then you, dear readers, should be abundantly aware of the fact that Hinata has had a crush on Naruto since Kami himself only knows when. She had been interested in him at least as far back as her days at the academy. Possibly even longer. And she has practically stalked the boy from afar for years. Her greatest wish has always been to be recognized by Naruto as more than just a friend, but as a potential girlfriend and/or lover. However when it comes to Naruto, the poor girl was so terminally shy, that in most cases, being closer than twenty feet from the boy usually caused her to faint dead away for at least twenty minutes at a stretch, with the odd exception, and she had always had a trouble speaking to him. 

That didn't mean she wasn't above sneaking around the village and following her crush anytime she had the opportunity. Which was why when she found him with a strange Nin she'd never seen before, wearing a cloak and with a face shrouded by a hood, she thought maybe it was some visiting dignitary or something. But then she saw a leaf Hitai-ate wrapped around said Nin's forearm. Her first thought was that this was probably someone from ANBU, and she would have readily let it go had said nin been masked like the ANBU were. But from what she could tell, this nin wore a mask similar to that of Hatake Kakashi, Naruto's original Jounin sensei. When the two walked into one of the more expensive clothing stores in the village, she snuck in behind them, and hid behind a rack. It didn't take long for the shop's owners to notice who had walked in. 

"Oi, what are you doing in here you monster! I thought you'd gone off somewhere and _DIED_." The woman behind the desk near the register snarled. She was one of those who had lost someone in the attack on Konoha by the Kyuubi. Specifically, she'd lost two people. Her husband and her daughter, both Ninja. And both had been crushed as if they were little more than bugs by the Bijuu. 

It was hardly news to Naruto that this particular shopkeeper wished he _had_ died. He knew this particular shopkeeper well. Once when he had been required by the academy to have a formal outfit for special lessons in diplomacy, something every Nin had to know- seeing as there was no clue what kind a mission a Ninja would need to be on- he had had to come here as it was the only place to get the stuff he needed, given that this was the only place that specialized in formal wear for Ninjas. He had been summarily thrown out on his ass and told that if he came back then he'd be beaten black and blue or until he died, whichever happened first. Unfortunately for the shopkeeper, this happened to occur _right_ in front of both Iruka and the Sandaime who had been walking that part of town, in discussions about the very project which required the formal wear to being with, as he was going to take part in it personally. 

What had resulted was _NOT _pleasant for the unruly shopkeeper, who was promptly arrested. Naruto was given his clothes free of charge, and Sandaime made it a law that, under no circumstances was Naruto to be barred any form of goods or services due to his 'condition' and that the only means by which he could be ejected from a premises was due to the same reasons that one would with any other client. It was a law that was strictly enforced. Many a shopkeeper found themselves spending a few months in the clink for their attempts to flout this law. Sandaime had had loyal and intelligent -meaning they saw Naruto for Naruto, not the Kyuubi- ANBU trailing Naruto at all times when he was younger, and even for some time after becoming a Genin, who would watch over him and enforce the laws. 

To this day, those ANBU, who had over time grown fond of the kid, even if he'd never seen any of them or had any clue they were keeping tabs on him, continued to keep an eye out for him. When Tsunade took office, they had made themselves known to her and requested to once again be put officially on the job as Naruto's in-house protectors. She had agreed, and they were on his tail again the minute it was reported that Naruto had been sighting within the city walls again. 

Naruto snorted. "Hey, bitch. Done anything stupid again lately? I remember that when you tried to get Sandaime's ruling overturned by pleading to the council, you were almost forced to give the shop to someone who didn't have their head up their ass." He taunted. Tsunade was no less strict with idiots in the village when it came to Naruto than Sandaime was. In fact, if anything she was worse for those stupid enough to think they could get away with the shit they pulled- or tried to- just because they thought Naruto was Kyuubi instead of it's jailer. _Why are those who don't know jack shit about anything always the ones who think they know everything?_ Naruto thought to himself with disgust. _Especially when their believed _Yondaime_ was the one who sealed the fox in me? I guess it's true what they say. One day you're a hero in this town, and the next day nobody even remembers just how great you really were._

At Naruto's taunt, the shopkeeper scowled. Bad enough the fox was here. But he had someone with him. A stranger wearing a hood and, if the shadows weren't playing tricks on her, wearing a Leaf Hitai-ate, though it looked...slightly different from the normal one. She'd also noticed Hyuuga Hinata's arrival, though her hopes of aid were dashed when she noticed, not for the first time, the look of adoration in the girl's eyes for the blonde haired bastard. "What do you need, you little monster?" she snidely asked. Technically it wasn't violating the law of Sandaime. On his own, Naruto's pranks had earned him the title of 'Prank Master from Hell' over the years, and even those who hadn't known at first that he was _the_ jinchuuriki of Kyuubi started calling him a monster for the stunts he pulled. 

Naruto was about to reply to the barb when Athan decided to thrown in her two ryo. 

"You will apologize to Uzumaki-dono, and you will not speak to him with such disrespect again. Or I will see to it this shop finds itself in need of a new owner and proprietor." 

Naruto's head turned towards Athan so fast he could have sworn it gave an audible crick. The shopkeeper's eyes went wide with surprise and shock, which then narrowed angrily. Hinata's eyes however, went wide and she almost felt as if her heart had stopped beating. She had **_never_** heard anyone refer to Naruto with such a prestigious suffix. San, maybe. Sama possible. But _DONO_? This was a title reserved for the likes of a Daimyo or the Shogun himself. Even she had never spoken of him with the use of such a respectful title. And what worried Hinata even more was that she now knew this strange Ninja was female, and about their own age. (Part of her immediately worried that she had a competitor for Naruto's heart.) But the chill in her voice when she issued the threat...that _scared_ her. It was as if there was no question of the matter. There was conviction, if not necessarily emotion, in her tone, and Hinata was entirely certain that she would follow through on that statement. 

"And what the hell makes you think I'm going to respond to threats, you pathetic little twit. How long have you been a Genin? Two, three days tops? You definitely aren't from around here. I know everyone in this village. Now you're gonna be a good little demon whore and stay out of my business. I'll call this bastard whatever the fucking hell I-" She never got to finish what she was going to say, because in a split second Athan was gone from her position behind Naruto and was now behind the shopkeeper, one hand grasping the back of her neck, and a strange weapon at her neck. The weapon itself was set on the gauntlet Athan wore, and Naruto cursed himself for not noticing before that this thing was no ordinary gauntlet. He'd seen weapons that could be designed to be spring loaded or otherwise set for use on a Ninja's arms. But he'd never seen anything like these. They were almost like mini-katanas with the blades curved to resemble the shape of sickles. They curved about, and there were roughly seven of them. And they glowed with Chakra...Chakra that looked like it was a stark rust color. Not like the red of Kyuubi. And it didn't feel demonic. So that put to rest his fears that she was a Jinchuuriki like himself. At least he was praying she wasn't. Her strange eyes still made him wonder. 

It was the raw killing intent she was emitting, directed at the shopkeeper, that set his hair on end. 

"I will not repeat myself again. Apologize to Uzumaki-dono, or suffer the consequences." 

Okay, now Naruto and Hinata were _both _scared shitless. 

And frankly, so was the shopkeeper.

* * *

Naruto and Athan exited the store, each with a bundle under their arms. Naruto hadn't noticed Hinata, hiding behind a rack. he'd been too dumbfounded by Athan to really notice anything else. Athan HAD noticed her, and when she looked Hinata's way, the white eyed girl had had to stifle a horrified gasp at a set of eyes which were entirely black. This was a deadly doujutsu: The Kokugan. Every member of the Hyuuga clan knew of it, but had long thought it to be either legend, or that it had gone extinct. She also knew where it supposedly originated. Her father would want to hear about this. But she wasn't about to tell him _today_ of all days. Naruto's birthday was today. She'd tell him about it tomorrow. 

For now, she settled for heading home and looking for some information in the family library to see if she'd really seen the Kokugan. If that was what it really was, then she could safely bet all hell would break loose very soon. 

Meanwhile, Naruto and Athan made their way back to his home. Athan actually did a double-take once she saw what his apartment was like. It wasn't exactly piss poor, but given his stature in the eyes of her people, despite knowing well beforehand how he was treated from the reports, it was still a shock to see how little he was regarded by his own people for so long. The Sandaime and Godaime Hokages had obviously stepped in on his behalf when they could, and she was well aware of the ANBU tailing them. (She also noted with some relief, though she kept it well hidden, that Naruto was also aware of them, but that he held no fear of them.) 

Naruto seemed to have noticed her seeming shock at the place. It was clean and fairly tidy, and dusty as hell, given that he hadn't been here in three years. "It's not much, but it's home." He said to her. Then pointed to a nearby room. "The guest bedroom is in there. Nobody's ever used it so I guess you can unpack your stuff," Come to think of it, did she even HAVE any kind of clothes beyond what she had on, plus her armor, and whatever clothes she'd bought at the shop? (Thank god she'd let the shopkeeper live. He didn't know how he would have explained it to the old hag if twenty minutes after his new...property (God that was going to take getting used to) had slain a citizen of Konoha. Granted she _had_ been violating the spirit of Sandaime's law regarding Kyuubi, and this could be punished by death, but Naruto just didn't have the heart to see the ignorant jackasses in this village be killed for their stupidity. ) "And get dressed for...whatever the hell the old hag wants us in formal gear for." Naruto hadn't wearing formal stuff. About the only gear he had other than clothes and his favored orange outfit was a set of new funeral robes he'd gotten to replace the older ones which were now to small for him. Thankfully the last time he'd worn those had also been the first time he'd worn then: The Sandaime's funeral. 

Athan stepped into the spare bedroom and, Naruto supposed, had begun unpacking. Or at the very least changing. He had no idea which she would do first. He simply went to work on changing clothes. 

_Wonder what Baa-chan wants me over in that part of town for?_

* * *

**_The Unenviable Author's post-notes!:_**

What indeed? You'll have to wait until next chapter, folks. 

On to a few things, firstly, the Kokugan is translated as Dark Eye or Black eye, and is, appearance wise, the counterpart to the Byakugan, but it has different properties. It is also one of three doujutsu you'll see from Athan. (You heard me. THREE..) I am however opening up a poll for what to call them. I don't have any Japanese names yet, so if you know Japanese, by all means, suggest some. I am currently leaving the possibility open for the introduction of one doujutsu to be suggested by the readers. Please be sure to leave the name, translation, and it's effects. If I like your idea, I will have it replace one of Athan's other two intended doujutsu, OR I may use it in another character. 

Next, for those of you who dislike Viz's use of 'believe it' as a translation for dattebayo, it's something they did to translate it as best they could since from all I know, dattebayo is just a means of reinforcing something a person has said. So Viz did a fairly good way of turning that phrase into something that is approximate to it in english. It will continue to see use. Deal with it. If you don't like it, you don't need to read the fic. 

Also, someone said they think Athan is another of the Jinchuuriki of the Bijuu. Mmmm...not really. You'll have to wait to see exactly what she is, and how she relates to Naruto. 

The Hyuuga clan may have a much larger role in this than I originally intended. Especially since Athan possesses a Doujutsu that they are extremely opposed to for very unique reasons which you'll see in upcoming chapters. 

Also, a second question: Should I keep this as strictly Naruto x Athan, with the possibility of Naruto x Temari, or expand it to a possible Naruto x Harem? I'm actually undecided if I should go the harem route, but I could see it possibly happening. I want to hear what you think. 

At this point Godzilla pops up and waves 

Godzilla: Don't forget to review! 


	3. Revelations

**_Shadowed Leaf_**

by 

Marc Weinstein 

Chapter 3 

Revelations 

A/N: Thanks for all t he kind words and reviews. The poll on the pairings is still open as is the stuff for Athan's other Doujutsu. On the subject of which, keep your eyes peeled. (yes that was meant to be as bad of a joke as it was.) 

Disclaimed: The Standard. I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kinomoto does. I'm just playing around in his universe for a bit. All original characters and countries however, belong to me. 

* * *

Naruto had finished dressing himself in his new formal gear. Luckily for him, 'formal wear' didn't necessarily mean a tuxedo. As long as it was something used mostly for 'dress to impress' functions, it counted as formal wear. Athan had dressed as well, but she kept herself hidden under that large cloak and she still wore her mask, keeping her features, save for those solid black eyes, hidden. He still wasn't sure what to think of that. They really did look like a dark mirror image of the Byakugan, and he wasn't sure if that was natural for her, or if she wore contacts. If the discoloration was natural, he hoped it hadn't caused her to be given a hard time by the people in her village. He remembered how Haku had been treated in his homeland, where Kekkei Genkai- Bloodline Limits, or simply Bloodlines- were cause for execution. he shuddered a bit at that memory. He noticed Athan continued to walk behind and just to the right of him. 

"Athan, you can walk next to me you know. It's not going to offend me or anything." He said to her. The truth was, it actually made him more uncomfortable to have her acting as if he was the Hokage already. Granted he wanted that more than anything, but this wasn't really the time or place for it. 

"...As you wish, Uzumaki-dono." The girl replied after a moment or two of contemplating her master's statement. And so the two walked on together, side by side. Naruto hoped his friends liked his new look. Aside from Sakura and the Konohamaru Corps and Tsunade, Iruka, and Shizune, nobody else he knew and considered a friend and/or family had seen him just yet. 

He was, of course, completely oblivious to the fact that Hinata had seen him earlier in the day when he was clothes shopping. Nor that she had seen Athan's strange, solidly black eyes. 

And neither was he- nor she- for that matter, aware of what was going to be coming. Though in later years Athan would look back and realize that she _should_ have seen it coming. Given the history involved.

* * *

Things were set up, and now all they needed to do was wait. Hinata had volunteered to keep her Byakugan peeled for them. Knowing Naruto, he was likely to show up either a few minutes early, or else crop up right on the dot. He was rarely ever late, unlike his former jounin-sensei Hatake Kakashi, who was usually chronically late. This time however, he wasn't. Mainly because Tsunade, after rounding up Jiraiya, had found him and dragged him here and told him to stay the hell put until everything was over, if he valued his Itcha Icha book collection. Under _that_ threat, Kakashi did everything the Godaime said, when she said it for the last several hours that had lead up to now. 

"They're coming!" Hinata's call came from the front of the room. 

"You heard her. Everyone get into position!" Tsunade replied. A few scattered sounds of people running and doing the usual Ninja stuff to conceal just what they had planned later, the blonde Sannin grinned. Now they just needed Naruto. 

The door began to open...

* * *

Naruto began to wonder what was up. This _WAS_ the address Tsunade had given him. he double checked it. So why the hell were all the lights out? Athan stood next to him, unmoving, though somewhat tensed, as if anticipating a trap or some such. She was going to take some serious getting used to. 

He opened the door into the darkened building. Said building was in fact, a fairly large mansion which, in and of itself comprised a fairly large estate. He suspected this was probably one of the holdings of one of the clans that they just didn't use often. The two stepped into the darkness... 

**_"SURPRISE!"_**

* * *

As the lights flew on, Athan found herself blinking in confusion. Her master however, looked...stunned. Not in the negative manner though. She noted that he seemed to know what was going on, though at the same time he was floored. She would have sworn she saw him tearing up as the crowd of people- friends of his apparently- seemed not to be done. 

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

* * *

He couldn't believe it. In fifteen years he had NEVER had a birthday party. In all that time, nobody had ever really given a damn about his birthday, except for four people: Sarutobi, Iruka, and the Ichirakus. And the occasional random stranger who kept leaving stuff for him every so often. Not always on his birthday though. he began to suspect over the years that maybe someone out there in the ANBU hadn't hated him. He remembered someone from what he now knew to be ANBU had saved him from a particularly vicious beating once. And he seemed to have a couple friends standing with him that day. 

He also got at least one present, unmarked, every year without fail on his birthday from someone who never seemed to want to make themselves known, but who didn't seem to be ANBU. he couldn't tell who they were, as back then he hadn't been that good at tracking and the like, but he assumed it was someone about his age...or maybe a midget, for all he knew...based on the size of the occasional footprint they'd forget to erase. He never did know who the hell this strange benefactor was, but he wasn't much about to complain. 

In the light, his friends were able to get a look at him, and he they, for the first time in three years. 

Naruto was wearing a pair of silk pants and a shirt that looked like a cross between a T-shirt and a long-sleeved kimono, with a hawk embroidered on the left hand side. His hitai-ate was still fit around his head. As was the case with most present, save for those who didn't wear one, such as Shizune and Tsunade. The outfit was unique in that it was gold and orange with black trim, and ruby red embroidery for the hawk. A pair of pouches and a holster were tied on at his side and leg. One of the primary tenets for a Shinobi: Even in formal settings, keep weapons at hand, but try to be inconspicuous about it. Naruto had done a good job of making them seem like they were part of the suit's design, and for all anyone knew, they might have been. It gave the blonde an exotic look that he had never sported before. He noted, as did Iruka and Kakashi, that some of the girls present were giving him an appreciative once over. Well, save for Athan, who had already seen him in his new apparel. 

_Speaking of which_, Tsunade thought to himself as she noticed the girl was clad in her cloak. _she's hidden under that cloak, and I know the ANBU said she did purchase some formal wear..._

"Athan, mind losing the cloak? We're all friends here, ya know." Naruto said, turning to the girl. Tsunade grinned. She was about to ask her to do so herself, but she probably would have been more polite about it. Jiraiya had quirked a brow at hearing about the girl from Tsunade earlier. Now he was seeing her for the first time in person, and he was scrutinizing her, studying her from every possible angle that had nothing to do with his being a supreme pervert, and everything to do with his being one of the legendary three. 

The rest of the crowd present were also interested in seeing what this girl looked like. Tsunade had briefly mentioned that she was a newcomer from an allied village whose ninja rarely came this far east, and that she was now living with Naruto as of today. (Hinata, on hearing this, had almost had a stroke and passed out. Kurenai managed to steady her and kept her from attracting any attention from anyone besides Neji and Hanabi. The younger Hyuuga sister, having been so impressed with the blonde maniac that she'd heard so much about from friends and foes of his alike, that she insisted on going to this shindig once she stumbled upon Neji and Hinata discussing the event that Tsunade had been planning.) 

Athan gave everyone a brief glance, taking in the people assembled, almost all of whom she knew at least a little bit about due to the gathering of information on these people over the years: Umino Iruka, the man who was her master's first sensei, Hatake Kakashi, her master's first sensei once he graduated the academy and the infamous 'copy ninja'. He was listed in the bingo book, and so she was fairly well informed of his abilities. Haruno Sakura, the pink haired apprentice to Tsunade, and the former teammate of her master in the now infamous Team Seven alongside the traitor, Uchiha Sasuke. Hyuuga Hinata and Hyuuga Neji, members of one of the most prestigious clans in the village (though Neji was part of the branch house of the clan which was, regrettably little better than slaves to the main branch because of that abomination of a seal forced upon them at such a young age.) and carriers of one of the two most feared Doujutsu outside the land of Darkness: The Byakugan. She had no information on the third Hyuuga who was present, but she seemed to be roughly ten or eleven years old, and though a genin, if the headband was any indication, she wasn't strong enough to qualify as a possible threat to Naruto. She also spied the infamous Ino-Shika-Cho trio: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akamichi Chouji. Three fighters who were part of a second generation fighting team that, rather ironically, had become one of the greatest gestalt fighting styles ever known, despite the fact that the style was less than seventy years old. Further along the line, she spotted Inuzuka Kiba and his massive dog Akamaru, and Aburame Shino, part of the bug using clan of Konoha. 

Next, there was Rock Lee, Tenten, and The Ichirakus, along with Kurenai Yuuhi, Maito Guy, and Sarutobi Asuma, the owner of Ichiraku Ramen and his daughter Ayame, and of course two of the Sannin, one of whom was the Hokage, the other her master's current sensei, and Shizune. She also noted that there was...a pig wearing a coat and a necklace sitting next to Tsunade and Shizune. Weird, without a doubt, but she brushed it off. Moving along, her eyes fell upon Sabaku no Temari, Sabaku no Kankuro, and finally Sabaku no Gaara. The infamous Sand Siblings. Temari was a master of the use of a battle fan, Kankuro a user of battle puppets. Gaara was a Jinchuuriki, containing the Ichibi no Bijuu, Sabaku no Shukaku. He was also the current Kazekage of Suna, and the youngest of the trio, with Temari, having three years on her master, as the eldest. She was a jounin, as was Neji, while the rest of the lower ranked people who weren't team senseis, were primarily Chunin, save for Hanabi so far. 

Walking into the main room from the next room over was Mitarashi Anko, a Special Jounin whom had lead a mission with her Master as part of the team at one point. She was once the student of Orochimaru, one of her master's enemies, but had turned on him once she had realized the evil he had succumbed to. Rounding out the lot was Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi, friends of her master, and Konohamaru's former sensei, a special Jounin named Ebisu. She knew next to nothing about them save that they had encountered her master at various times in the past, and that the so-called 'Konohamaru Corps' considered Naruto their leader, and that Konohamaru looked up to her master as a surrogate big brother. 

The assembled throng of people were all looking at her expectantly. She looked again at Naruto, who nodded. And so she unclipped her cloak and set it off to one side. More than one set of eyes went wide, including Naruto's, who hadn't seen what she had purchased. He'd been too busy looking for his own attire at the time. 

Athan still had her mask and headband on, keeping her face in mystery, though her neck and a fair amount of her pale colored flesh was exposed, and they could all see she kept herself well taken care of, but not to the point of exclusion of her ninja training. As for the outfit itself? She wore something that looked like it belonged on a supermodel. It was clearly a gown, but it fit to her every curve like a second skin. It was held about her by a strap at the back of her neck. Tsunade and Kakashi and Jiraiya suspected it probably left her back exposed, to some extent, but you couldn't tell it at the moment, due to the fact that her dark silver hair went to almost the middle of her back, tied off at the end in a minor braid. For a fifteen year old girl she was certainly...developed. In addition to a fair amount of muscle, but enough of a touch of the feminine to establish that she wasn't a muscle bound freak, she also had an impressive bust line, which revealed a fairly deep amount of cleavage for someone her age, easily that of Tsunade's at that age, as she had developed somewhat late in life, at about Athan's age in fact. This put her at a size about a quarter larger than that of Hinata's. (As soon as Hinata realized this, as her own bust was outlined fairly well by her own dress, she blushed profusely, and gave the silver haired girl a darkly jealous look.) 

Her lower body was nothing to sneeze at either, as the dress showed off the curves of a very womanly shape, and had a slit up the left leg that went almost to her thigh. She, like her master, also had a pouch of weapons at her waist, and a holster strapped to her partially exposed left leg. She wore a pair of gauntlets, which Naruto and Tsunade suspected were part of her usual apparel. The dress was navy blue colored silk with silver trim, and embroidered with the image of an eagle in jade on the right hand side. Needless to say, Naruto, Jiraiya, and Kakashi were left blushing like maniacs with semi-perverted (and in Jiraiya's case UTTERLY and OPENLY perverted) looks on their faces. Even Kiba, Shikamaru, and Neji were blushing. Kankuro was openly gawking at the dress, as were Iruka and Tsunade and Shizune, though for different reasons. Anko simply _smirked_, as if it was juuuust right for her. 

Gaara simply quirked a brow, as Shukaku began to rustle about a bit in his head, and whispering something into the back of his mind. The Kazekage's eyes narrowed a bit, but then relaxed. Tsunade wouldn't have put her within ten feet of Naruto if she wasn't trustworthy. He also had to admit that even if she was what Shukaku believed she was, there was no mistaking that she was exceptionally beautiful for her age. 

Chouji just stared for a few minutes, shrugged, then grinned happily and began snacking on chips...again. She was _hot_. She was also Naruto's, and he wasn't gonna mess with the blonde's woman. 

Kiba and Akamaru stared. Something about this girl was off. She was smoking red hot, but there was something weird about her. The two looked at one another, then back at her. Shino simply raised an eyebrow curiously. 

Hanabi smirked. This girl had _style_ and she knew how to make the most of it. She liked that. Her eyes though, something about her eyes tickled at the back of her mind. She just couldn't place it. 

Neji, once he got over his blushing fit (after a light whap upside the head by a jealous Tenten ("Put your eyes back in your head", she'd hissed into his ear lowly enough so that only he should have heard, though anyone with senses enhanced by Chakra or otherwise could have) , who despite not being his girlfriend, had aspirations to someday be just that), studied the strange Nin more closely. Then his gaze found her eyes, and his own widened considerably. 

"The _KOKUGAN_..." he gasped in something akin to horror. 

Immediately, every eye in the place, save Athan's, was on Neji. 

"Kokugan?" Naruto questioned, beating everyone in his age group to the punch. "What's that?" 

Neji just shook his head. "A very old bloodline limit, Naruto. With a very dangerous history. I thought it had gone extinct years ago." 

"So then it _is_ the Kokugan?" Hinata asked. All eyes now turned to her. "I-I saw Naruto earlier when I was out and about earlier today with...her...and I thought that was what it was t-too but..." 

"Look, we can worry about that later. Right now, we're here for Naruto, so let's _party!_" Konohamaru snapped irritably. The girl hadn't been in the village a day yet, and she was wrecking something that him and the rest of the Boss' friends had been planning for three years! Well not on his watch she didn't! "Tsunade-sama, shouldn't we go get the cake and all before we get the show on the road though? I mean, Boss IS the birthday boy, after all." He added. The sannin smiled and nodded, and Shizune went to fetch said cake.

* * *

The party lasted for several hours into the night. A few ANBU dropped by one at a time during the party, explained that they had been watching out for Naruto for some years now and had grown to respect the kid, and dropped off a few presents each. ("Consider it our way of making up for several years worth of gifts we weren't able to give you back then" one had said. Naruto had simply smiled.) A few villagers had passed by the place and had been told by said members of ANBU what was going on. A few minutes later, most of the village knew. However as it was, generally speaking, invitation only at this point, none of the other people in the village- almost the entirety of whom attempted to crash the party hated Naruto- were allowed anywhere near the building. Actually, most of them were turned away the moment they approached the entire estate. (which was actually a fairly sized complex of buildings with said mansion in the center, easily comparable in size to the Uchiha district.) Those who weren't were people who either held no strong opinion towards Naruto one way or another, or were semi-friendly towards him, however, as they had no desire to intrude on the boy's first ever birthday party, they simply left after being told by the guarding ANBU what was going on. 

Naruto's birthday presents ranged from the practical (new Kunai and Shuriken from Iruka, a few dozen bottles of soldier and blood pills from Sakura, A book on treating all manner of poisons from Shizune, and an impressive medical set from Tsunade which was portable, easy to use, and came with it's own carrying scroll and instructions for what each item did and how to use them.), to the comedic (The Konohamaru Corps had combined their resources to buy Naruto a new jokebook and five different 'li'l lunatic' prank kits), to the awe-inspiring (Kakashi, having heard how much Naruto had progressed, decided to make a present of his father's legendary sword to Naruto. He felt the boy deserved it after all the hell he'd gone through and still come out with a grin and saying 'I'm still here, ya fucking assholes!' Gaara and his siblings made him a mid sized statue scene which sat in the corner, depicting Naruto "As you are destined to be." As Gaara put it- it was of Naruto presiding over Konoha as the Hokage from the tower. Temari, who explained that it was for the help she'd given Gaara, gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. Not everyone was convinced this was simply a kiss from one friend to another in a platonic sense. (Hinata's eyes tightened a fraction or two of an inch when she saw this, but was too embarrassed to do anything about it, and Gaara's mouth quirked up in a somewhat mysterious smile.)) to the thoughtfully tasteful (Shikamaru gave him a copy of a book detailing the reigns of the various Kages across the known Shinobi Nations, Shino had crafted for him a special gardening set, having learned from Kakashi that he was a closet plant lover, and Neji had gotten him a specialized shirt which he felt suited Naruto's personality perfectly. It was a shirt which depicted a forest light by the moon, with a silhouette that might well have been a wolf or a fox, and the quote 'I am the spirit of the forest at night. Tranquil when happy, ferocious when angered, and always there when you need me.' He told him after Naruto had blinked with a confused smile "Suits you to a T. You've always just about killed yourself to protect others, including people you barely know. This shirt was designed based on a legend of an elder spirit creature from another country. It's actually a pretty big seller in Wave right now." Nobody noticed Athan's wince.) To the...well...Jiraiya gave him a special edition set of the entire Icha Icha series, to date, signed personally by him. Tsunade was going to shred the things when Naruto had unwrapped them and Jiraiya had gone on a mini-rant about how great an honor it was, but Naruto told her not to. 

Even though he wasn't a fan of the series ("Bah! You just don't have any taste!" Jiraiya had snapped.) he was touched by the perverted Sannin's generosity. Athan seemed amused by that one. The Toad boss Gamabunta and his sons had sent along some scrolls detailing some of the history of how the summoning contracts had been created and how and when they were given out the first time, and also granted Naruto a special honor, one reserved thus far only to Jiraiya and the Yondaime: The right to make a contract with any and all other summons out there, via the means of a treaty between all the summons put in place nearly one hundred and twenty five years ago, and never called upon, but which was still officially on the table. Bunta did however, suggest that he stay away from the snakes and slugs as the slugs had a special relationship with Tsunade's family, and the snakes...well, the snakes didn't care WHO summoned them, except Manda, and Manda ruled the snakes. He was also cruel and bloodthirsty, and as such, he probably wouldn't want to get involved with him. Athan's head had tilted to the side during this, as though she were considering something. 

Hinata, who almost had a coronary just trying to give Naruto her present, had managed to somehow find a copy of the latest book in an old book series Naruto _had_ been a fan of, which involved a group of warriors from all around an alternate vision of the world, who consistently found themselves fighting a maniac bent on world conquest by means of a machine called the Psycho Drive. His interest had somewhat dimmed when he had gotten an earlier volume which depicted one of the main characters having been intended to be said maniac's next host body after Sasuke had defected, as this struck too close to home, but his love of the series hadn't been killed off entirely, and he was able to take the plot twist involving the blonde with the scar on her cheek with a grain of salt. 

Ebisu didn't know Naruto that well, so his present was rather humble, a book containing a few of the more obscure, but effective jutsu that hadn't really been used in Hidden Leaf in some time. Naruto was ecstatic with the present, which pleasantly surprised the adjusting-my-shades-with-my-middle-finger 'closet-pervert'. Hanabi knew nothing about Naruto beyond what she'd seen of him in his battle with Neji three years ago, so she simply apologized for not having any idea what to get him on such short notice, and promised to do her best to try to find something for him next year instead. Naruto had grinned and said that was fine. 

Tenten had gotten Naruto a scythe and chain. Naruto wasn't bad with most weapons (after all, Shinobi are trained in almost every type of weapon known to man), but he wasn't sure if this suited him. Nevertheless, he accepted it graciously. He did note Athan's look of interest though. Asuma had given Naruto a pair of daggers similar to his own. Kurenai had given him a book on Genjutsu, similar to what Ebisu had given him, though this was Genjutsu specific with a small section on Ninjutsu. Chouji gave him a specially designed and very large cooler (almost as tall as Naruto's collarbone!) designed to hold about fifty times it's size in food which could be sealed into a scroll and carried along, for rations, which was packed to the gills with snacks and food of all kinds. Kiba and Akamaru had gotten him a pair of specially designed chakra-chargable devices which could render his scent undetectable. One was, obviously, a spare. Ino, who's trademark jutsu affected minds, knew how easily one could alter the mind's perceptions with Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, so she got him a special device which when activated, could nullify Genjutsu use by anyone except him and those he wanted to be able to use it, for about five hundred or so feet in all directions around him at it's basic setting. With practice, she told him, it could increase to at least a mile in all directions. she wasn't sure of the exact limit. 

Gai and Lee however, had seemed to be waiting for this moment for a long while. Gai presented Naruto with about fifteen volumes of books of different taijutsu styles that he was sure would cause Naruto's hand to hand skills to improve by leaps and bounds. Lee had presented Naruto with several sets of weights, citing that, as fast as Naruto was, whether on his own, or using that strange red energy, these would help increase that speed considerably. Naruto had sweatdropped a bit at this, but accepted the gifts nonetheless. The Ichirakus gave him one of his dream fits. Part ownership of their shop, citing that he had spent so much of his time and money there, he had practically spent enough to have bought Ichiraku's business outright over the past twelve plus years, and had practically become family to them in all but blood and name. Naruto had hugged the old man and Ayame for all they were worth. Anko, despite not knowing Naruto all that well, offered to teach him as much as she could, claiming that because her style was learned from Orochimaru, and he was bound to run into him again- and because she doubted Sasuke would pass up the chance to learn the snake's style as well, she should teach him what she could to give Naruto an edge in future combat. 

There was food, laughter, music, and dancing. In all, it was exactly what it was supposed to be: a party. Naruto had never felt so happy in his life. Around midnight, Tsunade asked them all to settled down. 

"Okay, guys, I have something important here. A couple things actually. It took me most of the day to look all this up before Shizune and I came over to help set up the party." She had then turned to Naruto at this point. "Naruto, I've done all the research I could, and I found out that, unless I'm really way off the mark here, nobody ever told you about your parents, am I right?" 

The silence was deafening. Nobody else moved or said a word. Jiraiya knew what was coming. he had been the one to fill in the gaps for her after all. Kakashi and Iruka however, along with the rest of the assembled, were curious as to who Naruto's parents were going to be revealed to be. All, save for Athan, who sat impassively, as if she might already know. 

Naruto just nodded heavily. 

"I thought so." Tsunade said. Then she took a deep breath. "I had to double check all the old files, since I left Konoha just shortly before you were born." She looked around. "...What I am about to tell all of you, is an S-class secret. Only your senseis know about this. You are not to speak a word of this to anyone else without Naruto's express permission from here on. Is that clear?" The others all nodded. 

"You've all been taught that fifteen years ago tonight, the Yondaime slew the Kyuubi no Youko at the cost of his own life. This isn't entirely true. No one Ninja, regardless of how powerful, could kill Kyuubi. So he did the next best thing. he _sealed _it inside the body of a baby who had been born that same day 

It didn't take too long for everyone to put the pieces together. Reactions were mixed but, generally supportive, for which Naruto was grateful. Naruto knew that he would have had to tell his friends eventually. But he didn't see how this related to his parents, and said as much. 

"Well, Naruto, that's the thing. There was only one child born that day among all the others that the Yondaime would have used." Jiraiya spoke up. "He was a man of honor. He would never have simply used someone else's child if there was a choice more close at hand, and he would never have made someone else give up their child for such a sacrifice. It just wasn't in him." 

"Wait a minute!" Naruto said, as this piece of information hit him between the eyes. "You mean to tell me that...that..." He couldn't get the words out. It just didn't seem real. It couldn't be _possible._ The rest of the people gathered seemed to understand now too. Even the various Jounin. Gaara nodded sagely, as this sunk in and he chuckled. 

"Makes perfect sense." 

Kakashi meanwhile looked as if he'd been punched in the _gut_. How he couldn't have seen this, given that he'd been one of the Yondaime's students, he'd _never_ know. 

Naruto shot Gaara a stunned glance. Then turned back towards Tsunade decided to end the dramatic moment. 

"You are the son of Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, and his wife, Uzumaki Kushina. Furthermore, this house belonged to them. This entire estate is yours, along with everything in it. MInato left behind an extensive library of jutsu, including his Hiraishin. You can move in tonight."

* * *

When the party finally came to it's end at about three in the morning, Naruto's mind was too preoccupied with the revelations he'd gotten as the discussion of his parentage had gone on for sleep. 

Kakashi after a few moments of stunned silence after Tsunade's declaration, had gotten up from his eat and walked over to Naruto and just about begged him to forgive him for his stupidity in not realizing who his father was. He revealed that Naruto's father had been his sensei, and that he had looked up to the man with the utmost respect. Not recognizing his sensei's son he felt, was the ultimate personal failure to not take one of his own lessons to heart: Look underneath the underneath. He hadn't even _known_ Minato and Kushina had been expecting a son. However as he spent little time around Kushina, and Yondaime had likely kept the fact they were expecting a child quiet to make sure as to protect his wife and child from their enemies, he hadn't even had reason to suspect. But he knew the two of them had married, though Kushina had kept her clan name. So he _should_ have anticipated that Minato would likely wind up a father at some point. 

Jiraiya also asked for Naruto's forgiveness, revealing to him that Minato, the night of Kyuubi's attack, had made him swear to keep Naruto's heritage a secret until he was strong enough to properly protect himself from the enemies that he and his wife had gained over their careers as Shinobi. After their training for the past three years, Jiraiya had determined that Naruto was strong enough that he could at the _very_ least, properly defend himself. Tsunade, who had access to the Sandaime's files, had told him that yes, Sandaime knew Naruto was the Yondaime's son, but had purposely kept this knowledge from the village and Naruto alike because of the fact that he had an inkling of how people were going to react to Naruto after Kyuubi had been sealed within him, and determined to keep Naruto's heritage a secret until he and the village would be capable of handling it. 

Not that Sandaime thought this information would have made life easier for Naruto if it had been provided at the outset. Like Minato, he was aware that the many enemies of Konoha's 'Yellow Flash' would be more than willing to take their grievances out on the youngster. The village would have probably been even worse in their treatment of Naruto, if they had known who he was, as Yondaime was considered the greatest of the Hokages thus far, Tsunade included. If the knowledge had come out back then that he had sealed the Kyuubi into his own _son_, all hell would have broken loose. The hospital had been undermanned that night as every medic they could spare had been out aiding the forces battling Kyuubi. As such, only about ten people on the staff knew about Naruto's birth parents and they too, were sworn to secrecy. 

Naruto at least believed he had a clue who on the staff knew who he was. There had always been a group of staff members there who had never treated him badly, though neither had they treated him exceptionally kindly. They had simply treated him as if he were any other patient, and once or twice he might get a friendly smile from them. 

After some discussion with the rest of the Konoha Eleven and the rest of the guests there, Naruto at least found that his friends were just that. Friends. Although many of them found the idea that he was a Jinchuuriki, they knew he wasn't the demon itself, and his actions over the years were what had proved that to them. The Demon wouldn't have held any loyalty to the village, and certainly would not have fought so hard to bring back Sasuke. 

Gaara had simply smirked a bit when he explained why he thought Naruto being the son of Yondaime made perfect sense. he had seen images of Yondaime -other than the Hokage Monument- and in those pictures, he looked like an older version of Naruto, just without the whisker marks. It didn't take him much effort to make the connection. However up until Tsunade had made the revelation, he assumed Naruto had known about it, and that this was why he had maintained such a positive outlook on his life. He also held great respect for Naruto not only for the fact that he could contain and use the powers of Kyuubi, but for the fact that he could also claim that despite the treatment much of his village had treated him, he had always wanted to protect them. Something Gaara came to see as his own goal towards HIS village only after Naruto had pretty much literally beaten some sense into him. 

Athan had remained entirely silent about the revelation. But he got the feeling she couldn't have cared less who his father was. He still had no idea why the hell she was basically his property...hell call it what it was, she was essentially saying that her village had ordered her to be his _slave_ and she just went along with it as if it was the most natural damned thing in the world! 

"**_Keep it down in there, Naruto._**" 

Great. The Kyuubi decided to wake up from it's nap NOW of all times! 

'_Oh shaddap, fox. I've got enough on my mind as it is without you making things worse._' He replied inside his head. 

The fox gave an amused chuckle. He could feel it sifting through his most recent memories. Then he seemed to stop dead in his tracks as he spotted something. That didn't last long though, as the fox began laughing it's nine-tailed ass off. 

"**_Oh you've GOT to be kidding me!_**" It managed to gasp out between laughs. "**_You find out that the Yondaime is your father, and that you've got a live-in bitch you could take any time you wanted her, and you're actually WORRIED about this?! Naruto, word of advice. Take her to bed and be done with the mess._**" 

'_Hey! I'm not a pervert you know!_' 

The fox just laughed harder at this, knowing as well as he did that Jiraiya had rubbed off on him, and probably a bit more than he'd want to admit. And even he couldn't deny that he was curious to see Athan in a little less than nothing. 

'_Oh shut up._' Naruto's mental voice definitely had the sound of someone pouting. The fox just kept laughing for another few minutes, before he sifted through more of Naruto's recent memories and made a noise of interest. 

"**_The Kokugan, eh? I've not seen that doujutsu in a long time. I'm surprised the bitch has it. Then again, if they're intending her to be your slave-_**" 

'V_assal.' _Naruto quickly interjected. 

"**_Amounts to the same thing, boy. You say jump, she'll ask 'how high?' She belongs to you. Legally you could beat her to death with a steel dildo while wearing a rabbit suit at the time if you wanted to, and the law couldn't touch you._**" 

While Naruto tried to get that disturbing (yet somehow humorous) image out of his head, he wondered if all those years trapped in him hadn't driven Kyuubi a few times around the track. Kyuubi simply chuckled again. 

'_So what IS this Kokugan thing anyway? What's it do? Neji and Hinata mentioned a little about it, but didn't go into specifics._' 

"**_Not surprising. The Kokugan is capable of trumping the Byakugan about six ways from doomsday. It's extremely rare, and only one family had it the last time I'd seen or heard of it, and that was about sixty years ago, back in the time of the man you know as the Nidaime Hokage. Where the Byakugan can see through objects and see chakra and the chakra network and the tenketsu in almost a full three hundred and sixty degrees, The Kokugan can see much more. It can see chakra and the like as the Byakugan can, but it can also read your soul. It can in fact allow the user to do damage to the soul in much a similar way as the Byakugan allows the Hyuuga the means to damage a person's chakra network. And that's actually the least of what it can do. I've heard it can even alter the very nature of a soul, though I never learned the exact method by which it works. There are at least three known levels to the Kokugan's power, in a manner that resembles your ex-teamate's Sharingan. _**" 

Naruto became perturbed by this information. It sounded to him as though it was a dark reflection of the Byakugan, with states similar to the Sharingan, which was said to evolve from it, but with powers that were frightening to consider. The Sharingan could allow people with it to copy attacks and fighting styles and jutsu and use them expertly. He'd heard that at the more advanced stage, the so-called 'Mangekyou' Sharingan, it could fuck with your mind. Kakashi had been a victim of the Mangekyou, though he didn't learn this till much later on. As had Sasuke. The fact that Athan had such a deadly doujutsu at her disposal was a scary thought. He idly wondered how the Kokugan would have compared with Itachi or Sasuke's Sharingan. Maybe he could find out if she ever had the opportunity to spar with Kakashi. 

"**_More to the point, something about this girl seems off. There's something familiar about the way she acts. Something very familiar. I just can't place it. I want to get a better look at her at some point though. I'd suggest sparring with her tomorrow or something. It may help me remember what it is about the bitch that seems so damnably familiar._**" 

'_Stop calling her a bitch._' Naruto demanded roughly. 

"**_Kit, she would screw your brains out if you told her to. You could tie her down to this new bed of yours and screw HER brains out and she wouldn't stop you. Face it. She's your bitch. You own her. And she knows it._**" 

Needless to say, Naruto didn't get as much sleep as he'd have liked, given the images Kyuubi began pumping into his brain.

* * *

Athan had left at about two in the morning to pack up some clothes for Naruto for the next day as well as bringing him some pajamas and that ridiculous hat he wore to bed, which she had dropped off with him when the party wound down. She had also brought her own packing scrolls and the like over, seeing as most of them were contained in a backpack she had worn under her cloak when she arrived. She was now dressed in a sheer nightgown and her underwear. Laying in the guest bedroom (Naruto had been all but thrown into the master bedroom after he'd stopped and simply gawked at it for about ten minutes by Tsunade.), she began to consider what she knew firsthand, as opposed to secondhand knowledge of all that she was now to be a part of. 

Naruto, her master, was probably at the point where his mind was overflowing to the bursting point. He'd had a number of revelations dropped on him all at once. First her, and then the revelation of his parents. A smile worked it's way to her mask, which she still wore even to bed, just in case her Master happened to have been up and about still and had decided to check on her in the near future. 

Her master was definitely very attractive, she decided. The whisker marks were exotic, though struck a little too close to home. Though she was aware he'd never been without them. They were part of what distinguished him as the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Just as the rings about Gaara's eyes marked him as the container of Shukaku. They weren't, as many suspected, from lack of sleep. So far as she knew, all Jinchuuriki had something that distinguished which Bijuu they contained. Those who actually were sealed, at least. She was also certain Gaara had an inkling of what _she_ was, as Shukaku, though not sealed in the same manner as Kyuubi, was nonetheless held back by the seal that kept him in Gaara, and Shukaku was active, unlike Kyuubi, who seemed to have been dormant, otherwise she was sure Naruto would have not needed to read that scroll tomorrow. Or would he? If Kyuubi was awoken from his dormancy inside the seal and could communicate with Naruto, the way Shukaku could sometimes interact with Gaara, surely he'd see her and recognize her instantly right? 

After all, considering everything, how hard could it be for Kyuubi to remember that with which she had become sentojita on the day of her birth?

* * *

**_The unenviable author's notes!:_**

Another chapter completed. And we've gotten to see a bit more about Athan's first known doujutsu. 

Now many of you are assuredly going to be asking, what the hell does sentojita mean? 

Well, I may have the word wrong, but it's the best I could come up with after consulting my Japanese-English English-Japanese dictionary, but the word is meant to translate as 'Warbound'. There'll be more about that next chapter. So to those who were thinking she's a Jinchuuriki...prepare to be surprised. 


	4. Back In The Saddle

**_Shadowed Leaf_**

by 

Marc Weinstein 

Chapter 4 

Back In The Saddle 

Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own Naruto. 

Author's note: Killyjoy 3000 made a guess at Athan's secret. he guess wrong, but it wasn't a bad guess. Thanks for all the reviews so far. You'll be seeing more to come on the Naruto x Athan relationship. But we have a lot more to touch on now that the preliminary crap is outta the way. So here we go!

* * *

The following morning saw Naruto waking up in his new master bedroom. And for a minute, he had no idea where he was or what was going on. Then the memories of the previous night came back to him. His birthday had been yesterday, and for the first time, happy memories were associated with it. But along with the upswing of happiness came the remembrance of the shocking news that, of all things, he was the _son_ of the Yondaime! He heard Kyuubi cackling as he work up more fully. Seemed the fox had been waiting on him to wake up. 

'O_i, it's not funny, ya bastard furball._' he snapped mentally at his 'tenant'. 

"**_Fuck you it's not. It's a damned riot for me. I'm going to have weeks of fodder to laugh at from this!_**" Kyuubi replied. Naruto mentally did a double take. 

_'Since when did YOU start swearing like a sailor?_' 

"**_You have any better way to pas the time in a conversation with someone who routinely calls you a bastard, among other things, boy?_**" 

He had to admit, the fox had him there. He simply sighed and rolled out of the plush king sized bed, and found some of the clothes Athan had brought from his old apartment before they had each gone to bed for the night. After a quick shower (well, maybe not as quick as he would have liked. It took him almost ten minutes to locate the bathroom.), he made his way downstairs. It didn't take him long to find the kitchen. And to his immense relief, his friends had stocked the place with various foods. It appeared that the stocking had happened over the span of a few days, as far as Naruto could tell. There was no way in all the hells that they'd stocked a kitchen this big in the space of a day _and_ had time to set up the party last night. But they had at least thought ahead enough to pack lots of instant ramen into a singularly large cabinet. Taking down two of them, he began preparing them. He was hungry. Then he paused and smacked a hand to his forehead. "Athan." he muttered, and went back to the cabinet to get out another cup of instant ramen. He didn't know when she was going to wake up, but he knew that most people's first thoughts when they get up, is breakfast. So he set the cup aside for her. 

It was about five minutes later when Athan made her way to the kitchen, upon hearing the sound of the microwave once she had cleared the stairs and had begun looking for her master. Like Naruto, she was dressed and ready for the day. Naruto had begun eating his first cup of ramen when she entered. She gave him a light bow in greeting. 

"Ohayo, Uzumaki-dono. I apologize for making you wait. I should have been awake over an hour ago, and had breakfast prepared. I have no excuse, and will accept any punishment." She said. Naruto just stared at her for a minute. 

'_This is gonna take a lot of getting used to._' He thought to himself. 

He idly noted that, if he could put a word to what Kyuubi had been doing prior to the girl's arrival, it would have been lazing about in his cell. It was hardly as if there was much he could _do_ in that seal after all. But the minute she walked in, Kyuubi's presence in his mind was suddenly extremely focused. What Naruto knew and saw, Kyuubi knew and saw, and over the years had learned to sift through Naruto's memories and even to a lesser extent throw a few mental images and the like his way. Nothing major, and hardly anything that would threaten Naruto's position as the dominant personality in their odd life, but enough that Naruto was more than a little concerned. 

"**_You'll have the rest of your life...or at least the rest of hers for that, Naruto._**" The fox replied. Naruto would have asked what _that_ crack meant when he noticed that Athan was still waiting on him. 

"Uh...don't worry about it Athan. I mean it was a pretty big party last night. Even I slept in. Besides, I'm not really...uhm...damn how do I put this. I'm not exactly used to having someone waiting on me unless I'm out at a shop or something. You don't have to worry. I mean it like it takes that much work to make instant ramen." He finally said, trying to figure out how in Kami's name to react to her. Athan's whole 'vassal' thing still left him weirded out. He knew that there were people in town who had servants and he knew the Daimyo and the Shogun had more of them than you could shake a kunai at, but he'd never had one. The thought had honestly never crossed his mind. 

Tsunade had a Vassal. Sort of. What the hell _was_ Shizune's classification anyway? She always called herself Tsunade's assistant. Wasn't that more or less the same thing? ...Probably only superficially, he realized. Shizune was subservient to Tsunade, yes, but every Ninja in the village was subject to her will. The entire village was, when you got down to it, at least to an extent. But Shizune was known to argue about Tsunade's drinking and slacking off work as well. 

Athan bowed again and walked to the table, taking a seat. Naruto noticed that she was taking in the surroundings, much as he had done when he walked in. Of course, Naruto being Naruto, his look around was cursory at best, just enough to figure out where most stuff was supposed to be or where you could put something. Athan looked as if she was expecting something to leap out at any moment and attack. Once she was satisfied with the place being (relatively) safe, she turned her attention to the still waiting cup of instant ramen, which Naruto had left for her, and which simply needed heating. 

"Uzumaki-dono...if I may be so bold..." she began hesitantly. "I would...suggest that you not restrict your diet to merely ramen. Your love of the stuff is legendary from all information I have of you. I'm not saying it's a bad choice of meal in a pinch...But this stuff isn't exactly health food." 

Naruto grinned. So there _was_ at least a little rebellion in her after all. Too bad she picked the worst thing to speak out against. 

"Well, I can see I'm gonna need to teach you the wisdom of ramen." he joked. "But before all that, one thing. Stop calling me that. I mean, after the first few times between yesterday and today...it's kinda started to creep me out. Just call me Naruto, okay?" 

The masked girl looked completely aghast. "b-But Uzumaki-dono...I couldn't! To be so familiar with you would be the height of rudeness..." 

"Only if I was some kind of royalty, and _only_ if I wanted you to call me that. Isn't it being ruder to call me that against my wishes?" He retorted with a mocking smile. Athan looked as if she was going to pop a synapse, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, she sighed and bowed her head towards him. 

"Forgive me for my disobedience, Naruto-sama." She said. Naruto shook his head wryly. It would have to do. He chuckled and gestured at the still cold cup in front of her. 

"C'mon, eat up. I'm already starting on my second cup, and you haven't even heated up your first yet!" 

Athan stared at the Ramen cup. It was mocking her. 

'_It's you and me, and one of us ain't walking out of here alive.'_ she thought at the ramen cup. 

Naturally, it did not reply.

* * *

Naruto wanted to smack himself about two hours later as the two were making their way towards the tower. 

'_She's just as bad as Kakashi-sensei!_' He thought to himself in exasperation. 

Athan turned out to be extremely shy about showing her face. She had made her ramen, and eaten it, but made sure to keep her face out of sight the entire time. And like with Kakashi, Naruto was dying to know what she was hiding under the mask and hitai-ate. Sure her eyes were interesting at first but now that they seemed to be all he was going to get to see of her face, he was dying to know. Unfortunately, Naruto being Naruto, he didn't realize that he could have just ordered her to take the damned things off. Kyuubi might have ordinarily reminded him of this little perk of having a live-in slave, but he was too busy watching the girl as the two went towards the Hokage tower. 

Plus, on some level, the Kyuubi was waiting for Naruto to realize it himself and proceed to slap himself silly. He'd done it before, and the Kyuubi had found it a soothingly funny thing to see his container doing to himself. While he might not want to admit it, the kid had earned his respect. For sheer stubborn pride and a shitload of courage in the face of odds that would have made anyone else curl up into a ball somewhere and cry their brains out, if nothing else. The kid was too bull-headed to quit and too stupid to know when to lay down and die. Granted the Kyuubi's aid in keeping him alive probably helped with that, but the kid constantly pushed himself, finding his limits, and then surpassing them. Much as it disgusted him to admit it even to himself, he had almost gotten to _like_ the kid. 

Didn't mean he wouldn't snap his head off in one gulp if he ever got free though. 

Maybe. 

Probably. 

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Sakura along with Gaara were also headed for the tower. Though for different reasons. Kakashi was going to be springing a bit of a surprise on Naruto and Sakura today. Though he suspected that Athan would now be included as well. Sakura was Tsunade's apprentice and had been tasked with several important duties in the last three years time, and she was fairly happily settled into the routine, and wondered what task her mentor would set before her today. Gaara, being a Kage himself, was on his way to see the Hokage about possible additions to the alliance between the two nations. He had a few ideas which, he hoped, the sannin would be receptive to.

* * *

While our group of intrepid weirdoes, vassals, vessels and perverts were making their way to the tower, Tsunade herself was re-reading the scroll that naruto had opened just the day before, becoming more and more vexed as she re-read the damnable thing. 

She probably _should_ have let Naruto read it first. It was addressed to him and the entire message was for him entirely, though there were a few brief mentionings of her specifically- leading her to conclude that although Kage rarely ventured beyond the borders beyond their part of the continent, they did have people out among the Five Great Shinobi Nations keeping them informed of events, especially since Konoha and Kage were still allies after nearly a century's time. Nevertheless, she had wanted to make sure whatever was in the scroll wouldn't cause more grief for her surrogate younger brother/surrogate son. But her sisterly and maternal instincts always came to the fore around Naruto, and while she knew he was going to go his own way as he grew, she couldn't help wanting to keep him as safe as she could. However, this, coupled with the latest mission request did not make things easy on her. And would probably give Naruto an even bigger headache than having a Vassal was already _giving_ him. The Ketsukage had given Konoha a phenomenal gift, but in a very roundabout way. Athan, if she was what the scrolls claimed she was, would be an effective shinobi, and a great boon for Naruto. But that was the problem. Her loyalty was to _Naruto_ only. If he was ever placed in a position where he felt Konoha wasn't worth his protection, she would side with him, and she was obviously very effective. 

She'd already heard of Athan's little stunt at the shop the other day thanks to the ANBU who always kept an eye on Naruto when he was home, and she sighed again. She was, like most of the rest of the people Naruto's age, a Chunin, though she suspected that if she wanted to, she could qualify as a Jounin easily. In fact, the scroll addressed to her claimed that Athan _had_ been considered for Jounin rank, but she had declined, citing that she didn't want to offend Naruto by being so much higher in rank than he was, as she knew he would be upset that he was still genin while all his friends had likely surpassed him in that regard. 

Tsunade sighed again. But then laughed. On that subject, she had another surprise for Naruto when he came in today. Of course, the downside was that almost immediately afterwards, he was going to be heading out again. 

As if that was a cue, there was a knock at her door and then it opened as Naruto stepped in, followed by Kakashi, Sakura, Athan, and Gaara. She quirked a brow in curiosity. She knew why the first four were here, but why was Gaara with them? The Kazekage had turned up a few days before Naruto's birthday, and had said he and his siblings had wanted to help with it, but said he also had some business he wanted to discuss with the Hokage, but would do so _after_ Naruto's birthday party, so as not to detract from the chance to give Naruto a chance to have a day all for him for the first time in his life. Maybe that was it then. 

"Ohayo, Kazekage-sama, Kakashi." She greeted with a light bow of the head in respect to her fellow kage. "How's it goin' brat?" she directed with fond amusement at Naruto who just grinned and stuck his tongue out at her. "Sakura, Athan." She greeted cordially. 

"Ohayo, Hokage-sama." Gaara replied, returning her gesture. 

"Hey Baa-chan! We got missions today or what!?" He grinned, hands folded behind his head. Sakura twitched, looking like she wanted to smack Naruto upside the head. Athan simply stood behind and to Naruto's right, wearing her regular gear, including her hooded cloak. Kakashi simply looked amused, as did Gaara, who wore a mild grin on his features. Kakashi's eye gave off his amusement- and fond nostalgia- at having Naruto back in the village. 

"You have got one, as a matter of fact. But first, two things." She replied. Naruto immediately perked up. Athan became more attentive to the conversation. Sakura looked confused, while Kakashi if anything, looked not just amused now, but outright smug. Tsunade internally smirked. He wondered how he would take this. 

"Firstly, due to Oto's increased activity in the last few years, rumblings that Iwa is mobilizing, and likely to strike out at us seeing as they still hold a grudge against us from defeating them in the last great war, plus Akatsuki's continued movement-" (Naruto winced. Athan's gaze suddenly sharpened and took on a very angry look.) "You are being given a promotion to Chunin under the emergency status provisions act put in place by the Shodai Hokage when he first founded the village, based on your previously impressive track record, your success in the utilization of tactics and strategy as made evident by your match with Hyuuga Neji during the final round of the Chunin exam, and your ability to defeat Sabaku no Gaara during the ensuing invasion that took place afterwards. ("No offense. Tsunade cut across herself as she directed this towards Gaara. "None Taken." he'd replied.) Secondly-" 

She was cut off by Naruto's yell of triumph and the fact that he was now bounding all over the office, thrilling in his promotion. He also grabbed her in a hug, as well as Sakura, who again had to refrain from doing as her mentor sometimes did when he was young and belting him through a wall, and even Athan, who looked somewhere between terrified and confused by her master's actions. Gaara simply chuckled, while Kakashi had a hard time holding in his own laughter. Though he _had_ taken notice of Athan's reaction. 

After Naruto finally managed to calm down, Tsunade grinned a bit, and then continued. 

"Secondly, I am putting you, Sakura, Kakashi and...Athan...together against an opponent to see how well the three of you will work together. Given Athan's current status as Naruto's Vassal and now a Chunin of Konoha, seeing as she was a chunin in Kage before coming here, I cannot put her with anyone else due to the plain and simple fact that, according to her home village, she is Naruto's...property." She said this with some distaste. "Therefore, I want to see how much you and Sakura have improved, as well as getting some idea of what she can do." 

Naruto winced again. That was _still_ something that hadn't really sunk in yet. He was Athan's master. He _owned_ her. And it just didn't feel right to him, but she didn't even bat an eye at being referred to as his _property_. if anything, the look in her midnight eyes told him she was perfectly alright with this. He sighed internally. 

'_This girl's gonna give me an ulcer before I'm twenty, I just know it._' He thought to himself. 

Kyuubi, for the moment not focused on Athan, gave a rumbling cackle, and both of them knew why. 

'_Oh shut up._' He thought at the demon before he said anything. 

"**_Make me._**" The fox taunted back with a grin on his face. Naruto just gave another mental sigh. 

"So who're we facing, Tsunade-sensei?" Sakura asked. 

"Take a look behind you." 

The three of them did, and found Kakashi, one hand in the air, wiggling his fingers in an exaggerated fashion. 

"We're going up against Kakashi-sensei? Why?" Naruto blurted out. "He already knows we work together great!" 

"Actually, Naruto, it's been three years since I worked with either of you, and I've never seen Athan in action at all. If this were like back then, and Athan was the third member of the group that had graduated instead of Sasuke," Here the blonde and pinkette flinched, remembering their traitorous ex-teammate "I'd have had some idea of what I was working with, but she's not from Konoha, and people from Kage are very rare to find this far east. I want to know how much you've improved." 

Again Naruto was reminded of just how strange having the silver haired girl around was going to be. In terms of her skill as a ninja, she was a complete unknown. During his travels with Jiraiya, they had gone to various countries, but never once had they ventured anywhere near the Land of Darkness. He had seen it vaguely mentioned once or twice, in a few books Jiraiya had gotten on the general geology of the continent. It was among the few things the perverted sannin had had that wasn't one of his Icha Icha books or something like the bingo book. In fact that brought up something he had never realized. Just about everybody who was anybody in the world of Shinobi had a listing in the Bingo Book. There were listings for Jiraiya, Gaara, Kakashi, Tsunade, Orochimaru, even himself, as he had performed more than a few amazing things in his days as a genin before leaving for that trip, and during the trip itself. He wasn't considered remarkably dangerous yet, but he was still fairly impressed with being listed as a B-class opponent. The Sannin were S-class, and Orochimaru was both a Kage, and an S-Class missing nin and SS-class ranked criminal. few would dare to challenge the snake Sannin. Sasuke hadn't yet had his profile updated from when he first made the book as a Missing Nin, but he was considered at LEAST a B-class, due to the fact that he had already been incredibly skilled when he defected. Kami above only knew what he was like now. 

But never _once_ had he seen any listing for anyone in the book who was from Kagegakure no Sato. Granted, each village had it's own version of the Bingo Book, though some things, such as the listings of Missing-nin, appeared to be universal across the various versions, but in all the time he'd been able to access each new volume of the thing (how Jiraiya managed to keep abreast of the updates to Konoha's Bingo Book, he'd had no clue, but given his information network, he wouldn't discount anything.), he'd never once seen even a mention of anyone from Kage. It was as if the massive gulf that was the boarder between the five great nations and this mysterious Land of Darkness kept even the news of criminals from that part of the world as shrouded in mystery as the girl he now...owned...was. 

It creeped him out. Bad enough he knew nothing about his new charge. (or was he hers?) But to not even know anything about her village except vague references made him feel less than thrilled about this whole mess. Granted, there were a _LOT_ of place she'd never heard of, but usually hearing about them meant he was going to be _going_ there in short order after hearing about them. There were a few exceptions of course. He'd never been to Earth or Cloud country. Or Water country. But he'd been to a number of the various lands he'd heard of, and to not have any clue about this place where his new house mate was from unnerved him. 

"Meet me at our old training ground in one hour." He said. Then paused and laughed sheepishly. "You'll have to show Athan the way obviously, as she's new here." He added, as if remembering just now that he had no idea where the old training ground for Team Seven had been. 

Naruto sighed, audibly this time. 

This was going to be one _long ass_ day.

* * *

There were times Naruto hated being right. Kakashi decided to put them through the bell test again, giving them until midnight to accomplish the task. Meaning they had eleven hours and fifty five minutes, as it was just about five past noon. And the two original members of Team Seven had begun admirably. Naruto's use of Shadow Clones was astounding. Before, he had been utterly untamed and completely wild. Now, there was still that manic energy, but at the same time, there was far more strategy than he'd had that first time around. Naruto had grown up as a prankster, and this had not entirely deserted him. As he'd had no idea what to expect, he had gone to his old apartment and dug out some old pranking supplies, dashed to his NEW home (he still couldn't believe the Namikaze/Uzumaki estate was his. The place was _huge_) and got one of the prank kits, and had whipped up a few items designed as distractions for Kakashi in this combat exercise. 

Sakura was also doing remarkably well, displaying her inhuman strength. Naruto was physically strong on his own, and even stronger when drawing upon the power of Kyuubi. But Sakura didn't need an added power source to call up her insane strength. Her first foray into the battle resulted in her creating a massive crater when Kakashi had tried to hide underground and plan new tactics to use against his former pupils. As before, he'd told them to come at him with the intent to kill. 

He was regretting that now. Athan was taking it far to much to heart. And she was _good_. Like Naruto and Kakashi, she knew the Shadow Clone technique. Considering the name of her village, Kakashi and Naruto were unsurprised by this. Kakashi idly wondered if Kagegakure was the point of origin for the technique. It would make a lot of sense. Several clone techniques developed in the various shinobi nations beyond the simple illusionary clone technique which allowed for solid clones, such as the water, mud, and earth clones. The Nidaime was capable of creating clones formed from wood. 

Every time it seemed that Kakashi was focusing himself on beating one or the other of the three Chunin before him, each would cover the other. However, despite the fact that Naruto and Sakura were putting serious effort into it, they weren't trying to kill him, as he knew they wouldn't. To be honest, he wasn't entirely being serious in the battle with them. But they sure as hell couldn't tell. 

Athan however, was more than just trying to beat Kakashi. She really _was_ trying to kill him. Nearly had on a few occasions already. 

As said before, she knew Kage Bunshin. And she used it like she'd been doing it for years. Now that he thought of it, she might have been. As it had been back when he had taken them under his wing, Athan had darted into hiding, unlike Naruto and Sakura, who preferred to take him head on, secure in the growth of their strength and powers. 

He'd spent fifteen minutes avoiding Naruto's clones and Sakura's superhuman strength, when he suddenly felt the presence of someone else, and barely managed to avoid getting his _head_ cut off by three sets of blades around three identical arms, as Athan came out of the ground with two Shadow Clones and nearly angled him in a pincer movement that would have resulted in his demise, while a fourth tried to knock him back towards Naruto and Sakura. 

He was surprised she hadn't tried to get one of the bells. But then he realized that she actually seemed to have a grasp of the original idea behind this exercise: teamwork. She was quickly joined by Naruto and Sakura as they caught up, and together the three of them were pushing him to use immense amounts of ninjutsu. Whether it had been planned out beforehand or not, the three of them were working frighteningly well together. Or rather, Sakura and Naruto worked like the well oiled team they had grown to be before Sasuke's defection, and Athan worked alongside them yet at the same time was pulling moves off that seemed designed mostly to let them take the lead after she gave them an opening. 

What scared him was that she had done all this using only the Kage Bunshin, hand to hand combat, and the occasional use of weapons. The girl hadn't used any other jutsu yet. She was more like Naruto in that regard than he would have thought. Naruto rarely used jutsu unless he felt an absolute need, as he had tremendous confidence in himself and his physical capability. Sakura, back when she was younger, had relied entirely on physicality as she didn't even seem to _know_ any jutsu, but according to what Tsunade had told her, she had become an expert medic-nin. So she probably knew a lot of medical jutsu. She was even using Genjutsu now, as evidenced when she tried to entrap him in one featuring an illusion of finding a scrap of paper describing the release of a movie based on the Icha Icha series. It almost worked too. But he broke it half a moment before any of the three could get a bell. 

'_They've grown so much. And Athan gives them a lethal edge. Even Sasuke didn't really have it in him to kill when they began as genin..._' The masked Jounin thought to himself. '_She nearly killed me earlier and her attacks have always been determined for the finishing blow when I get too far away from them. She's had me a few times dead to rights. But each time, all she does is herd me back towards the other two..._' He wondered about that. Was it deliberate, or was she just doing this to help because she knew Naruto would approve if she helped? She hadn't tried to show favoritism to her Master, but neither had she shown any indication that she would leave Naruto's side to aid Sakura if she were in danger. He wasn't sure if he could risk trying to find out, given how hard he was pressed to handle all three of them. He dodged as a Kunai thrown by Naruto whizzed past his ear. 

'_Little brat's gotten faster and sneakier in the last three years!_' the son of the White Fang thought to himself in amusement and pride. He hadn't even sensed the Kyuubi vessel's approach. Jiraiya really had taught him well when it came to stealth. Still wearing orange- though not as bright as it once had been- and he actually managed to sneak up on him! Sakura he could understand, as she still wore that dark read that just got darker as the light continued to slip away into dusk. And Athan wore that sleek black cloak which made almost no sound, and covered any and all of the armor which might otherwise have given her presence away in the light. What made him a bit sad though, was that unlike Naruto and Sakura- and hell even Sasuke, when he let his guard down- Athan said nothing, gave nothing away. He had no idea what she was thinking as a person. As a _NINJA_ she was fairly easy to read. He'd given her the phrase 'come at me with the intent to kill' and took it straight to heart. Sasuke had done the same, though back then he doubted Sasuke would have necessarily been able to go through with it, no matter how much he'd wanted Itachi dead back then. And more than likely still did now. 

She was a wall of stone. The only time she'd shown any emotion at all had been when Naruto had hugged her earlier. She looked scared and confused then. Like the idea of such ordinary contact was almost foreign to her and she hadn't known how to handle it. What the hell kind of upbringing had she had? He'd researched the Kokugan earlier in the day after hearing it mentioned by Neji the previous night, and had come up with almost nothing, save that it could give one the potential to damage one's soul in the same way the Byakugan was capable of damaging the chakra network, something that the Kokugan could also allow a person to do..._if_ they had been trained in the Jyuuken or something similar at least. He hadn't noticed any damage to either in the few times he'd had to go hand to hand with her so far, but that didn't rule out the possibility. 

Meanwhile, the three Chunin were about fifty some odd feet out and to the north of Kakashi's current position. Naruto panting heavily. 

"Damn, was he _always_ that good?" he asked to Sakura, almost rhetorically. "I mean, I didn't even see the signs he was using his hands were so fast!" 

"tell me about it. He can't match me for strength, but he's faster than all of us put together. 

"Untrue." Athan said. The first time she'd spoken since the test began. "He is simply much better and more experienced than we are by the virtue of the fact that he's been at this a lot longer than either of you or myself have. He's been in the field for at least half your lives before the three of you became his team. His father was legendary, and he's not that far off himself, if the information I gathered about him in the libraries I'd seen when on my way here are accurate. Given your current state of alert, he wouldn't have wasted the last three years by sitting on his laurels." 

Naruto eyed his Vassal critically. She was right. When he was younger, Naruto had always overestimated his own fighting skills. When he'd first faced off with Zabusa, it had very nearly gotten him killed. He'd suffered the same fate when he went up against Haku. Sasuke had had to get involved and save him from possibly being killed by his senbon needles. (And to this day he still wasn't sure if he believed that Haku had really been a boy. Sasuke looked somewhat effeminate back then. But Haku _had_ to have been a cross dressing girl in his opinion. No man could pull off dressing like a girl and be _that_ damned effective at it!) 

"So how the hell do we stop him? It's not like we can...waaaaait a minute." He said, his eyes suddenly carrying a glint of the Prank Master from Hell, which had once shone in his eyes almost non-stop for years before he became a Ninja. "I got it. We just need to keep his hands occupied right?" 

The other two simply looked at him in confusion, and in Sakura's case, a little bit of fear. She knew Naruto had been a NOTORIOUS prankster in his youth. Even she'd heard of what others had called him: The Prank Master from Hell. If he'd suddenly been inspired to take on a battle strategy derived from that seemingly sealed away part of his mind after so long, Kakashi-sensei wasn't going to stand a chance. Naruto had routinely outwitted Jounin, and even _ANBU_ back then. 

She didn't even want to _think_ of what he could come up with _now_...

* * *

Kakashi was still trying to recover from the most recent engagement between himself and the three Chunin. he'd had to use his Sharingan just to give himself a bit more of an edge, because combined, the three of them were a terror to fight. He also wanted, desperately, to read the copy of Icha Icha Violence that he'd been given by Naruto yesterday before the party as a gift. He wasn't even really a third of the way through it, and desperately wanted to know if Izumi and Arashi were going to get together. Naruto had told him he'd read a little bit of it on the trip but had found it boring. 

'T_hat kid really doesn't have ANY taste._' The copying thought to himself. '_He just can't appreciate Jiraiya-sama's true genius!_' 

Speaking of Naruto and company, where were they? They had hidden their presence well. he hadn't seen them at all in about twenty minutes or so. Good. It meant they were probably regrouping and would be on their way soon. What had him worried though was that Athan was probably with them, as for once, she hadn't tried to herd him back towards the other two. She and Naruto had much more stamina than Sakura had, he'd learned that much. But that's not saying Sakura was weak. Far from it. In all truth, she had come a long way, and was now at about where Naruto and Sasuke had been about when Sasuke had defected. She had started out as the weakest of them, and she was slowly but surely closing that gap. 

'_That girl's going to be as dangerous as Tsunade when she hits her stride. She's gonna hit the ground running, I just know it._' He thought to himself. 

Again his mind came to the silver haired girl. Too much about her felt wrong. Not in the way of a spy or anything like that. More as to the idea that something was severely wrong with her upbringing. She wasn't a vengeance driven madman obsessed with strength like Sasuke became. She wasn't a lunatic like Orochimaru, and she wasn't obsessed with power to rule the world with like anyone in Akatsuki was supposed to be. 

She was just..._off_. It was as if she'd been trained in the way of the Ninja- as it had been described in the Code of Shinobi- with one or two tweaks. Her whole thing of being Naruto's vassal appeared to be one of them, if that incident he heard about in that shop was any indication. But she showed so little emotion. For a fifteen year old girl, it was frightening. Every Genin, and even most Chunin in all villages, showed some emotion. The Code was the way Ninja were usually supposed to act and perform. But few actually upheld it. When he was younger, he most certainly _had_ held fast to it, and it had cost Obito his life. Athan appeared to uphold to most of it, particularly the part about not showing emotions when at all possible. 

Part of him actually pitied her for her lack of emotion, and shuddered at the thought of what that probably meant for how she had been raised. 

Before he could ruminate on it further, he ducked, missing being hit with a ball that splattered into paint on the tree behind him. '_What the...Naruto. That HAS to be Naruto..._' Then he was dodging, bobbing, and weaving as Shuriken, paint balls, even senbon needles were being hurled his way from damned near every direction on three sides and above, trying to keep him pinned down in a nearly three dimensional pyramid laying on it's side. He remembered something like this happening, though entirely with paint balls, some years ago to a shopkeeper who had been rude to Naruto- this being before Sandaime had put down that edict which helped the kid manage to at least survive on his own, given that he had no caretakers back then- whom the blonde had then gotten back with a pranking he still hadn't forgotten to this day. Most of the people in town remembered it too. They had called it the 'Blueruto triangle' given that the shopkeeper and much of his wares had wound up sky blue. How Naruto had set it up back then nobody knew, and Kakashi was too busy dodging the various items to use the Sharingan to check. 

Then Naruto, Athan, and Sakura were upon him as the flying weapons stopped coming. Many of which had poofed into smoke on impact with the ground, rocks and trees, leading Kakashi to assume they were shadow clone weapons, something Naruto and Athan were both proficient in using. 

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, while we're here, lemme tell you a bit about what happens with Izumi and Arashi." Naruto said, grinning. Kakashi's eyes went wide. 

"AAGH! NO SPOILERS!" he shouted, covering his ears, thus blocking out Naruto's voice though he kept speaking as he advanced, and then the cop nin's eyes widened in horror. 

'_SHIT! The Sharingan can read his LIPS!_' He slammed both eyes shut. 

Nothing happened. 

Still nothing happened. Kakashi opened his non sharingan eye, and then the other, letting his hands fall to his sides when he saw Sakura leaning casually on Naruto's shoulder with a grin, Naruto matching it, and Naruto and Sakura holding up the bells, with Athan standing just behind Naruto, betraying no sign of emotion beyond an odd twinkle in her eyes that he assumed was satisfaction at a job well done. Naruto laughed, turned to Athan, and tossed her his bell, which she caught, looking confused, but she seemed to get over it quickly. 

"Boy Kakashi-sensei, did you ever fall for that one. I didn't even read ten pages into the damn book!" The blonde said with a shit eating grin. Kakashi stared. 

Then burst out laughing at having been finally on the receiving end of a shot from the Prank Master from Hell.

* * *

A few minutes later, Tsunade and Shizune had made their way out from the nearby woods where they had been concealed, having watched the match, along with Gaara and Jiraiya. 

"Well, I can see the three of you will work wonderfully together. I officially declare the four of you as Team Kakashi." She said with a wry grin. She still had her doubts about Naruto's new charge. (Or was he HER charge? That kind of thing always gave her a headache cause in some respects it would go both ways.) But she was an exceptionally good Ninja for her age and rank, and this gave the former Team seven a complete cell once again. 

"Oi, Oi! What's our mission supposed to be, anyway, Baa-chan!?" Naruto called over to her, somewhere between happy, mildly winded, and impatient. She couldn't fight off the grin that came to her face. Neither could Sakura or Shizune, as they, Kakashi, and Jiraiya all thought the same thing in tandem. 

'_He'll never change._' 

They all also hoped he never would. He may have been the cause of extreme prejudice and isolation when he was younger, but his pranks had still made people laugh- when they weren't on the receiving end and when they could get away with laughing despite the perpetrator being the Kyuubi vessel. In many ways, Naruto was the laughter of the village all rolled up into a bundle of blonde hyperkinetic energy that rarely seemed to brake for anything. Even gas. 

"Come with me. We'll get the mission details for you from my office. You'll need to pack and get ready to go. You'll be getting some aid on this, as even a team as well coordinated as you four won't be enough." 

Thus about twenty minutes later they were back at the tower, and Tsunade had given them the details she knew of the mission:   
A fairly large village to the southwest was being terrorized by unknown attackers. They were Ninja, but this was about all that they knew. It was neither Oto, Iwa, or Kumo, nor was it Kusa, though they weren't too far from the general area, but they hadn't made any serious movement outside their own borders for awhile now, seeing as Oto was starting to encroach on them and they were making sure that Orochimaru didn't get too far into their borders. 

"So it's recon and ass kicking, huh?" Naruto asked after Tsunade had explained it all. Sakura gave him a playful smack across the shoulder with a laugh. Kami, how she'd missed his idiotic bluntness! Athan twitched at the slap, but given that Naruto seemed to have been half expecting it when it happened, she let it slide. Besides, the girl had been established as Naruto's friend at the party, and if the information she had on him was correct, he had once had a crush on the girl. That seemed to no longer be the case, but there was still an obvious tie of friendship between the two. 

"Pretty much." Tsunade said in return, smirking as she too had missed this blunt and direct attitude of his. "However, I've arranged for at least three more to join you." She motioned to Shizune, who nodded and went outside. "Shizune'll bring them in. While we're waiting though..." She opened the drawer of her desk where she'd put that scroll and handed it to Naruto. "You may want to read this on the trip, Naruto. It'll be...informative...to say the least." She'd said, a mild frown marring her features, which gave Naruto cause for concern. Before he could voice his opinions on the matter though, the door opened and Shizune came back in. 

Followed by Temari, Hinata, and Neji.

* * *

**_The Unenviable Author's Post-Notes!:_** **__**

The plot thickens! 

For those wondering, yes, I used and based the match with Kakashi on a compressed version of the battle with Kakashi and Naruto/Sakura from the _Naruto Shippuden _anime, with Athan added in as I felt she was needed and would fit in. 

Yes, you _will_ get to see what's in that scroll, and probably within the next chapter or maybe the one after it. 

Yes, Sasuke will show up eventually. Yes Orochimaru will also show up. Yes, we'll see Akatsuki. And _YES_ the 'rescue Gaara' Arc will happen, though it won't happen in the same way as it did in the anime or Manga. Nor will it likely end the same way. (I haven't seen the Manga yet, only the fansubbed anime, and I'm about as far into that as the rest of you are seeing as only about twenty some odd episodes have been produced thus far. I do _not_ know any Japanese worth writing home about and such you'll see the english version name of most Jutsu, the Rasengan and Chidori notwithstanding. The Kage Bunshin is interchangeable with Shadow Clone, so either one works for me. I'll use the Japanese names where I can, and the rest of the time you'll have to bear with english versions. 

For those wondering, Naruto x Athan is now a definite as far as I'm concerned. I'm still on the fence about any further romantic involvement between Naruto and any of the other girls, but you can be sure Hinata isn't about to let Naruto go without a fight! You may also see some hints of Naruto x Temari, and possible Harem. After all, Athan IS going to wind up being involved with Naruto romantically. She's not going to be tossed aside for a canon girl. So if anything develops, it'll have to develop three ways. 

We _will_ see the Kokugan in action soon, and may also see one of Athan's other Doujutsu make it's appearances soon, and I'm still open to suggestions for names and a possible alternate doujutsu for her, people. I was very lucky in finding someone I knew whop was able to help me design a name for the Kokugan, but I can't keep going to the same source all the time. 

Also, a new question: Should Naruto have a Kekkei Genkai of his own or not? So far he's been shown to get by a lot on his own sheer guts and determination, and yet he has had more than his share of battles alongside and with those who have them, such as Haku, Neji, Kiba (I'm pretty sure his ability to communicate with dogs counts), Shino, Itachi and even Sasuke. About the only other person who had no such advantage was Sakura, and even then the 'Inner Sakura' may count as one as we know so little about it. I've seen many a fic where Naruto discovers that he has a bloodline limit. I am debating giving him one. For reasons I'll explain in a chapter or two. 

As all these 'polls' remain open, I am open to any and all suggestions and names for the foreseeable future. Rock on, Fanfiction readers! 


	5. Tensions

_**Shadowed Leaf**_

Tensions

Standard Disclaimer applies.

A/N: To YellowDemonFlash: I actually had considered something _very_ similar to what you proposed. So I may use it, but it will be different in some regards. For one, it won't involve the Shadow Possession jutsu. Other than that? We'll see.

* * *

It was nearly ten at night when the seven Ninja had set off on their mission, with Kakashi in the lead, flanked by Neji and Temari, who were both Jounin, and then followed by Naruto, Sakura, Athan, and Hinata. Their trip would likely take about ten days, as the village they'd been hired by was to the southwest of the joint border of Wind and Fire country. However they had been closer to Konoha than Suna geographically, so that was to whom they'd sent the mission to.

As the group traveled, most of them were alone inside their heads with their own thoughts, save for the three Jounin, who were discussing recent matters of interest that were only known in their particular circle of influence, so the others paid them little mind. Sakura was mentally tallying all the information on the herbs and antidotes and what have you that she'd packed for the outing. Hinata was doing much the same, but she was also casting dark looks towards Athan, who traveled the closest to Naruto, and was silently cursing her shyness around the blonde boy in social situations. Her ability to keep herself relatively calm during missions when around him (as rare as that was, as she'd only had maybe two, three missions tops with the boy before he'd gone on that trip with Jiraiya) was mostly limited to when she was actually on the move or in combat. When the team was at rest on the way towards such a mission, during the mission itself, and afterwards, it left her with that same nervous shyness that had always made it impossible for her to really speak to the boy about much.

Her only two real 'victories' over her shyness had been when she'd successfully managed to give Naruto that healing ointment during the preliminaries of the third round of the Chunin Exams three years ago, and their brief battle with those Ninja who could summon a giant bug nearly a half a year later, when she'd managed to bring herself to hug the boy. Of course, he hadn't fully understood it for what she had meant it to be. Which had somewhat popped her balloon of ecstasy at finally being able to do such a thing without freaking out on him. But it was something she counted as a victory nonetheless.

Now there was this strange girl from a village that she'd only heard the vaguest of references to, who had the _KOKUGAN_ of all things, who was living with the boy of her dreams! Who considered herself his vassal. His _property_, and he was just standing by and _letting it happen!_

Now Hinata is usually among the most level headed girls in the village. She was unlike all the rest of the girls in town. Where most (indeed nearly all) the girls in her age group -along with a few older and a few younger- had been gushing over Sasuke, and in general regarding him as the greatest thing since sliced bread, _she_ had been focused on Naruto with all the attention and love starved obsession of a wallflower of a girl who wanted nothing more than to be acknowledged by the kid who was the _true_ 'bad boy' of the academy. Sasuke may have had an aura of 'badass' about him, but he was so arrogant and so entirely focused on the classes at hand, that he basically just lived life from home to the academy and back again up till graduation. Naruto on the other hand...

Naruto was the kid nobody wanted to get near for fear of him because of the fact that their parents always said he was a monster or a demon. And for fear of the next stunt he'd pull out of his ass in an effort to get some attention. He had a mind like a steel trap, when he wanted to use it. He routinely thumbed his nose at Sasuke's supposed greatness. He played tricks and pranks, and made a habit out of evading Chunin, Jounin and ANBU alike in his flouting of the public's opinion of him. His 'attack' on the Hokage monument before his graduation had left Hinata in fits of laughter when she had seen it before he'd been forced to clean it up. Many others who didn't hate Naruto for the fact that he was the vessel for Kyuubi (and that fact still startled the hell out of her, but it explained _so much_ about why he'd been treated the way he had been as a child) found most of Naruto's pranks funny. Mostly because he rarely visited pranks upon anyone who didn't deserve it, or at the very least, didn't do anything permanent to anyone. Even the paint job on the Hokage monument had been done in a type of paint that could be easily washed away. He knew he would be caught eventually, knew he'd be forced to remove the paint himself, so he'd obviously thought ahead to make sure it would be easy to do. He was the real bad boy of Konoha academy, and everyone, even Sasuke, had known it.

If good girls are supposed to be attracted to bad boys, then Hinata was the classic fit of that mold, because she had wanted Naruto for a long time. At first it had been the general childhood crush. But then as the years had gone by and she'd more or less stalked the blonde, watching him, and reveling in living through him vicariously and trying to be even half as strong and courageous as he was, she'd found herself growing even more attached to him, just as puberty began to strike during her early teen years. If he wanted to, say, rip her clothes off, tie her down, and make her his whore, she honestly would have thrown herself at his feet and let him do anything he wanted, her position as Hyuuga heiress be damned!

But now out of nowhere, here came this girl who had a figure even better than her own, who was living with him now, and for once, Hinata couldn't help but feel jealous on an irrational level. Sakura was, to the best of her knowledge, still devoted to capturing the heart of Sasuke. So she was hardly a threat in the 'race' for Naruto's heart. Ino was much the same way, though her affections for the boy seemed to be fading away, so she could be a potential threat in the future. Tenten was, she suspected, heavily crushing on her cousin Neji (who seemed as oblivious to it as Naruto was to her own affections), so she was out of the loop as well. Temari...

She wasn't altogether sure about Temari. She'd caught her sneaking glances at Naruto during the party, which seemed to hold a spark of interest in the boy. That was enough to set her to worrying. Although Temari hid her figure when on missions and in general, her gown at the party had revealed that she was still a girl who took pride in her appearance. The blonde Jounin had traveled to and fro from Suna and Konoha, and had often been found at Naruto's favorite shop in the entire village: ichiraku's. She was often speaking to Teuchi and Ayame about Naruto, trying to find out as much as she could about him, and she had to admit, she couldn't have picked anyone better to go to for information. The only people who knew him better, as far as she knew, were Iruka and the Sandaime. Iruka was often busy with the academy during the day so she probably didn't have much chance to talk to him all that often and the Sandaime was _dead_ so there was no chance of her getting to talk to him about the blonde haired vessel.

Athan however...she was a _direct_ threat to her greatest desire. The girl was, from all accounts, in possession of great skill (the Shadow village wouldn't have sent a weakling to Konoha to serve under Naruto otherwise), was extremely devoted- The incident at the clothing shop was already public knowledge by now, as the poor fool wouldn't stop complaining to anyone who would listen about it, and Hinata had _been_ there at the time it took place, and she hadn't even been able to track her movements because the silver haired girl had caught everyone off guard at that time- and she was _living_ with Naruto. If anyone had the truest advantage in achieving his heart and winning his love, surely it had to be the girl who would get to see him at all hours of the day, right? She was even part of his team now!

Hinata was terrified that after her years of watching and hoping and dreaming were all about to be snatched away by some girl who was too wound up to be safe around, and who wouldn't even show her face to anyone!

And that dress kept popping up in her mind. That slit up the girl's leg. She was _sure_ that Naruto had been staring at that- and the amount of chest she'd left exposed- a little more intently than she wanted him to.

But she said nothing, averting her gaze as Athan turned to look at her, as she sensed the white eyes of the Hyuuga heiress upon her. The black eyed girl turned her gaze forward again and when the pace picked up, she followed, keeping _just_ a bit behind Naruto, as a good servant should...

Hinata wanted to _kill_ something at that moment...

Preferably something that had the Kokugan.

* * *

Naruto started to feel himself getting twitchy once they were about a quarter of a mile out from Konoha. The nearest town was almost another half-day's travel away on foot. And right now what he wanted to do most, was to read that scroll Tsunade had lobbed his way before his friends had been brought in and the seven of them had set out. He was certain that the thing contained a _lot_ of answers about Athan, answers that he wanted, and he wanted them _now_, by God. In two days and half a night, his world had been turned sideways. And while he might never know why Kyuubi decided to try to make Konoha into lunch, which wound up with him being sealed inside Naruto, or why the village was so dense as to not make the connection between him and his father (He _still_ couldn't believe that. He'd once dreamed what life would have been like if he'd been the son of someone important, such as the Yondaime, who was, ironically, one of his heroes growing up, but he'd never imagined he really _was_ the son of the Yondaime. He hadn't quite come to terms with it yet.), but he figured those were things he'd never know. Kyuubi never answered him when he asked about why he'd attacked...and Yondaime was some sixteen years deceased, so there was no way to ask him, barring some twisted miracle.

But Athan...there was so much he wanted to know about this stranger. She had an attractive body (though he still had no idea what her face looked like, and as with Kakashi, that was driving him summarily _nuts_), was strong, apparently devoted to him at a level he honestly wasn't sure he deserved, as he was no Hokage yet, and somehow or other, had not only attracted the fox's attention, she had brought out the weirder side of him. Who would have known the Kyuubi was such a pervert when he wanted to be?

Then again, the fox _had_ been trapped in the seal for sixteen years now, and he must be going out of his mind from boredom. It was no wonder he spent so much of his time sleeping. If the roles had been reversed, Naruto would have gone crazy by now, or maybe tried to kill himself from sixteen years of isolation from ANYTHING. The fox couldn't feel anything, couldn't touch anything, couldn't _**DO**_anything in that seal unless Naruto went to the four tailed state, something he rarely did without need. As such, he was amazed the fox had maintained any semblance of sanity. He was sure he would never have fared as well. Loathe as he was to admit it, this line of thought had caused his respect for the fox to go up another few notches. He knew the fox was one of the biggest threats the world had ever known, but his ability to keep himself coherent after being imprisoned in a living cell, with nothing for him to do beyond sleep and watch the life of a kid who would have otherwise been a blink of the eye to an immortal such as himself, and faced with the fact that unless he found a way out, that when said kid died so would he...

Credit where credit was due. The fox was as tough a bastard as they came.

"_**Flattery will get you nowhere with me, kid.**_" Kyuubi rumbled with a tone somewhere between amused and somewhat surprised. Looks like he'd been peeking in on Naruto's private ruminations. The blonde had gotten more than used to it by now. "_**Speaking of your new bitch, you're not the only one who wants a peek at that scroll. I still can't quite place what it is about her that sets my fur on end, but something about her seems too familiar to me for it to be coincidence.**_"

'_Well you've been watching her all day. You should have come up with SOMETHING on her by now. Or is the great and powerful Kyuubi no Youko so dulled in his senses these days that he can't get a reading on a simple human girl from some country barely anyone in the village has ever heard of?_' Naruto shot back playfully. He heard the annoyed growl from the demon, but the fox didn't snipe back. Naruto got the sense that it wasn't quite due to the fact that Naruto had been right so much as it was to the fact that he was still working on that.

Eventually, they had to stop for the night. They had all brought tents, as far as Naruto knew, but Athan revealed she had no desire to use hers. She had brought it solely because it was required gear, but her intent had been to sleep outside, or keep watch over Naruto. Mentally, he found himself somewhere between exasperated and somewhat elated that someone would do that for him. Sure, teams often kept watch, but he'd never had anyone do so _specifically_ to protect him. It did somewhat make him feel guilty about it though. She might get a cold or something...

He was sure he'd seen a dark look from Hinata pass Athan's way, and Temari looked a little...perturbed as well. Though he had no clue as to why. Maybe because she'd shown both of them up at his party with the outfit she'd worn. Girls tended to be like that. They wanted to look the best it was possible to look, and didn't like being upstaged. Guys were kinda the same way, though for most guys it was strength, not looks, that mattered most to them. Sasuke had been the utmost proof of that. He'd run off to Oto just because he felt Naruto was becoming even stronger than he was, after all. If that didn't prove Naruto's view on guys and girls and how they competed with one another socially, nothing would.

This was going to be a long trip, and so Naruto brought out Chouji's present and passed around a few snacks. Athan, he found, seemed to have a sweet tooth when it came to doritos, as her eyes- jet black as they were- seemed to light up when he'd tossed her a bag of nacho cheese flavored ones. He chuckled at this little revelation.

He frowned a bit when he realized she had seemingly vanished when he had turned to toss Neji some chips, and heard crunching from behind one of the tents.

'_She really IS just as bad as Kakashi-sensei._' He thought to himself. But he shook his head, sighed a bit, and started on his own snack.

A few hours later, most of the group was asleep, aside from Naruto and Athan, as far as either knew. Naruto had gone inside his tent to try to grab a few Z's, but found himself unsuccessful. He exited the tent and found Athan where she had been about ten minutes ago when he'd gone into his tent; Sitting at the campfire, which was now not quite as brilliant as it was before.

"Can't sleep?" she asked a few moments after he sat down next to her on the log they were using for a makeshift bench. He started in surprise. She hadn't said much during the hour or two everyone had eaten together (once she'd come back from around the tent after finishing as much of the bag of doritos as she was hungry for at the time and setting it into her own pack.) before deciding to pack it in.

"No. Too much on my mind at the moment." Naruto replied, rolling his neck a bit to get the kinks out of it. He might have an ungodly healing factor, but even he wasn't entirely immune to fatigue. He just had insane amounts of stamina.

Athan quirked her head to one side. Although she said nothing out loud, he had the feeling she was silently asking him to vent. He wasn't sure if he wanted to.

"Er...it's nothing important." he said, trying to wave it off. The silver haired girl's seemingly empty sockets (God her eyes looked weird) told him she wasn't buying it.

"It's important enough to keep you awake, Naruto-sama. Please, feel free to use me as a sounding board. How can I serve you if I don't know what you need?" she said. And that right there was one of the problems he was having trouble coming to terms with.

"For one...there's you." He said after a few minutes silence. She looked hurt. "I mean...not that you're a bad person or anything or all this but...I dunno. I mean, up till you arrived, everything was...well, about as normal as my life ever really gets. But then you show up on my sixteenth birthday, and suddenly it's like the entire planet decided to go _nuts_!" He exclaimed, starting to get on a roll now that he was talking. "You come from a village almost nobody knows of at first mention of it, you have some weird doujutsu that can pound the Hyuuga clan's into the dirt, you use the Kage Bunshin nearly as well as I do...Kami above, you scared the living _shit_ out of me with that stunt back in the shop yesterday. I've never seen anyone in my age group move like that...except for maybe Sasuke and Neji and maybe Lee, but those three are speed freaks."

Athan just sat there, taking all this in. She looked like she was about to speak when the blond plunged onward still further.

"Then there's the fact that, in terms of stamina when compared to Hinata and Sakura, and even Temari, you're a like a shark on steroids, and they're just little fish in an ocean made of molasses. Gaara is one of the only people I know who can have a hope in hell of keeping up with me when it comes to sheer stamina. Even Sasuke doesn't have that kind of staying power, and me and him were neck and neck right up until I started accessing Kyuubi's chakra!" He stopped to take a breath, and was counting his lucky stars Jiraiya had helped him learn to keep his volume regulated to a level where he could say all this and do it without waking anyone up, which thankfully was the case, so far as he knew. Nobody'd thrown anything at him yet and told him to shut up and go to bed anyway.

"But what _really_ gets me is this...this whole 'vassal' thing! I mean, okay so your village called this in as a favor as part of the alliance. But I don't understand why in God's name you would agree to this kind of thing. You're practically a slave from what I know of how most vassals are treated by the royal families here in the five shinobi nations and all. I mean sure some of them are treated well, but Vassals are basically owned people. And what gets me is you don't seem to give a damn about how much of a danger that puts you in. What _scares_ me is that I have no idea of what would happen if in a fit of anger or something, I said something I didn't mean, and whether or not you'd take it seriously or not. God, I am not _ready_ for this kind of responsibility yet, I have a hard enough time taking care of my _own_ life, how the hell am I supposed to be responsible for someone else, who seems to think nothing of the fact that...that...oh fuck it, Kyuubi said it best. Legally I could beat you to death with a steel dildo while wearing a rabbit suit at the time and nobody could legally prevent me from doing it, and frankly the idea that I have that kind of power over someone, who would probably just _sit there and let it HAPPEN _ scares me, alright?!"

He finally seemed to be spent, at least on this particular topic. Athan just stared at him for a few moments, before turning and poking the fire with a stick. For a few minutes, neither of them said anything.

"I'm not that much of a doormat, Naruto-sama." she eventually replied, so softly he almost jumped out of his skin when she spoke. "I serve you because it's why I'm here. But I wouldn't simply let you kill me for no reason. Mostly because I know enough about you to know you would never do such a thing. If a day ever came where something like that were to happen, I would fight you with everything I have in me. ...I'd probably lose. You are stronger than me after all, but I wouldn't just sit back and let it happen." She said it convincingly enough, but Naruto could see the doubt in her eyes.

"I understand you're...well, I don't wanna call you paranoid about my village," He noted her speech was becoming less formal. More like that of an ordinary everyday ninja, and not someone from a really snooty or elite clan. "but I can promise that we have no hostile intent towards Konoha. Your very presence there has strengthened our alliance with your home beyond means I can really put into words."

"But why? What the hell is it about me that would make that alliance stronger. Your people _worship_ the damned fox, for crying out loud! Considering what my..." he almost choked on the word, as he still wasn't used to applying the idea of having one to himself, "Father...did to him, shouldn't that be a good enough reason to want Konoha leveled to the ground and my head on a spit?"

This time Athan turned to him, and gave him a measuring gaze, harder than she had looked at him at all.

"To know that...you'd really have to read the scroll first before I can tell you anything in any real detail. If I tried to tell you things from my point of view and what I know about this situation...I'm not sure I'd be able to give you a straight answer, because even I don't know quite everything. Even the scroll is only part of the whole story."

'_At least she's honest.'_ Naruto thought after a few moments of trying to read her emotions and via the body language she was giving off. She wasn't entirely open, but enough to know that she wasn't lying to him or trying to avoid the issue. Not in the terms of actually trying not to tell him anything.

"Ano..." Athan began, drawing his attention to her. She halted for a moment, but then pressed on. "What's he like?"

Naruto may not have been a world class genius when he was younger, and he was never going to create the cure for the common cold, but even he was smart enough to catch onto her meaning in half a tick.

"The Kyuubi? He's...well...uhm..." '_Fucking hell, what am I supposed to tell her?!_' "Well to be honest...I didn't really know he was _there_ for the longest time." He said. Athan gave him a surprised yet curious look. "No, I mean it. Up till I was twelve, I had no idea he was sealed into me. ...See, okay, I dunno how much information you get out in Kage and all, but the Sandaime laid down this law when I was born that nobody among the adult population in the village could talk about him being inside me. I mean sure, we all were taught about how Kyuubi attacked and was beaten..." he waved a bit, unsure if he should go on. She _was _from a village that worshipped the nine-tails after all. He ultimately decided he couldn't possibly make things worse than they already were. "But everyone in the younger generation was always told that the Yondaime killed him. ...Well, actually that's not entirely true. We were taught that he beat Kyuubi. But it generally became accepted among the students at the academy that that meant he'd outright killed it. Hell, even the non-shinobi kids wound up thinking that."

"It wasn't till I'd failed the graduation exam for the third time that I found out about Kyuubi from a chunin who was an instructor at the academy who'd decided he wanted more power than he already had, and tricked me into swiping the forbidden scroll. Now I dunno exactly what makes it so forbidden, other than the fact that Kage Bunshin pulls a huge drain on people's chakra reserves and people who don't have the capacity for it have sometimes killed themselves trying it, but beyond that, I dunno what made it so forbidden. Anyway, during the whole mess, the guy went and broke the Third's law and told me I was Kyuubi's vessel. ...Actually, he told me I _was_ Kyuubi. See I dunno how it happened but a lot of people somehow wound up thinking I was just _him_, only in human form, biding my time and plotting my revenge or something."

Athan giggled a bit at this. As if it was somehow funny. He glared at her.

"Gomen, gomen. It's nothing. Please, go on."

"...Right. Well..." Naruto talked for a little more than an hour, detailing the end of his conflict with Mizuki, and the formation of team seven, which lead to his first actual use of Kyuubi's power when he saw what he believed to be the death of Sasuke, and then his first face to face meeting with the fox a few months later in the month span between the second and third stage of the Chunin exams..

"The first time I met him, I honestly had no idea _what_ to think. I mean, even in my head, the bastard's gigantic. The bars, the sewer, the entire thing creeped me out...and the first thing I say to him is 'Rent's due!' I swear to Kami above I was sure he thought I'd lost my mind!"

Athan was almost howling in laughter, though she kept it to a manageable level. Kyuubi, who remembered that occasion very well was also chuckling. His respect for Naruto went up another few notches. He had all but let that first encounter slip his mind. To this day, the boy's courage in the face of something who would have eaten him without a second thought in any other circumstances had made quite an impression on him.

The two chatted for a bit more, and then both noticed the time. Naruto was finally tired enough that he felt he could manage to get to sleep now. Athan looked like she might have been smiling under the gear she used to keep her facial features concealed.

"Shall I stand guard then, Naruto-sama?"

"_Hell_ no." the blonde immediately replied. "You need to sleep just as much as the rest of us do. It's another six hours to the nearest town, and then another nine days just to get where we need to be. I appreciate the concern and all, but I don't want you out here sitting up all night and collapsing on the trip from exhaustion."

"But..."

"Look, if you're that insistent on the whole bodyguard thing, just grab your sleeping bag and join me in my tent if you don't want to set your own up. That way if anything happens you'll be in perfect position to actually deal with it."

Total ringing silence rang through the camp for a minute and fifty five seconds _exactly_ as they both processed what he'd said and the somewhat perverted way that could have been taken, and Naruto completely turned beet red, while Athan...well he couldn't be sure, but she almost seemed to be blushing under her mask as well, and looked a little skittish altogether about the offer, but eventually, she nodded, and went to grab her backpack and brought it, and her sleeping bag, to Naruto's tent. After rolling her sleeping bag out on the ground next to Naruto's, she fell asleep. Naruto wasn't that long behind her in drifting off to slumberland.

Neither of them had noticed the two white eyes that had been watching them the whole time, nor the teal and green eyes which had joined in the eavesdropping about midway through their conversation.

Neither the teal or green eyes noticed the murderous anger in the white ones.

* * *

The following morning saw the group on the move again after packing up. Kakashi had giggled pervertedly at seeing the blonde and his fellow silver hair walking out of the boy's tent together. Naruto bopped him on the head with a shadow clone and told him to get his mind out of the gutter. Of course, Kakashi's sense of smell being much better than average already knew nothing had happened, but it was still fun to tease him about it. Only Neji seemed to notice the starkly dangerous look in Hinata's eyes at this entire exchange, and the glare she sent to Athan's back.

They moved with all the speed they could muster. And given that they could use Chakra to enhance their speed, that meant they could move _very_ quickly. Six hours was actually a light workout for most Ninja at their level and they could have made it to the town during the night, but as it would take over a week just to get to their destination, and they had no idea if the unknown enemy would have sent forces to attempt to intercept them, they determined to take it slow, and see what happened on the trip.

Temari slowed her pace to match Naruto's, and she gave him a grin in greeting which he returned.

"Hey Temari. Long time no see." He said genially. "How's things back in Suna?"

"About as well as can be expected. I'm a Jounin along with Kankuro. Gaara made-"

"Kazekage. I heard about it from Sakura and the Konohamaru Corps when I got home. Kinda jealous he made it to Kage before I did." The two heard a distinct sound that might have been an amused snort from Athan.

"Going to be weird now saying that when there's a village named that now, huh?" she asked in amusement. The three of them shared a moment of amused laughter.

"You'll get used to it." Athan interjected cordially. "It can't be any stranger for you than it is for me to be outside the Kurayami no Kuni and not seeing some of the landmarks I'm used to such as the lakes that mark the border between Kurayami no Kuni, and Hikari no Kuni. I've never been this far east before."

It was the first time she'd spoken to anyone (other than Naruto last night) like a real person, and it was also interesting to note that Kurayami had a counterpart country. Somehow though, Naruto felt as if he'd half expected it. What was darkness without light, after all?

"Then how come you seem so calm about everything? Your people are rare in this part of the continent. But you take it all in stride." He asked of his Vassal. She grinned behind her mask. Naruto felt a bit of pride in that he was finally starting to learn to read her body language better and that it was helping him to read a bit of the expressions hidden behind her mask.

"Just because my people aren't readily _seen_ this far east, doesn't mean they aren't _there_. Because of the alliance between my home and yours, Naruto-sama, we constantly have a number of Nins among the five nations, keeping their eyes and ears open for anything that might be a threat to our allies. In this case, Konoha primarily, and Suna by proxy as they are counted among your allies. My people keep fairly detailed records, photographic and otherwise, about as much as they can about what goes on in this part of the world, and that's why I know a fair amount about you, and most of your friends. Missions, fighting styles, and general knowledge of your skills and tactics. It was required learning for me. I had to know as much as I could about you before I was ready to come here to take my place at your side. About all I didn't have any real clue about was your various personalities. I could rattle off statistics about you for an hour, and it would pretty much just be a really highly detailed report that would be found in something a _lot_ more informative than maybe the latest copy of the Bingo Books here, but I couldn't tell you what other kinds of food you like other than Ramen. Your love of that food is _legendary_, even the Bingo Books have that listed about you. That's why I suggested maybe you should cut back on it. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that they could poison you through a bowl of the stuff, you know."

The entire group was listening to her once she'd started talking, and Naruto looked utterly flabbergasted. This was the single most she'd said in one go since meeting her. And for once, he couldn't argue the point. He thought back to her comment about 'health food' the day before, and he had to smirk. So this was what she'd meant.

"...I'll take it under advisement." He said, rather coyly. Most poisons wouldn't work on him, due to the fox, but that didn't mean the others weren't susceptible. He saw Temari and Sakura roll their eyes, and Kakashi gave an amused chuckle. Athan gave him a stern look, but didn't push the issue. Neji simply smirked.

Hinata, behind them all, was barely restraining her fury. '_How DARE she say such things to Naruto-kun!'_ she thought to herself. '_What does she think she is, his wife?!_'

Yes, even the green-eyed monster can strike white-eyed Hyuugas.

* * *

By the time they arrived in Ore town, the entire group (even, begrudgingly, Hinata), had shared a few jokes to pass the time. Athan hadn't spoken any more about her homeland, but appeared to know a few killer one-liners. Kakashi smiled behind his mask. Her jokes were funny. But sometimes it seemed like she was fighting back a lot of anxiety, maybe even depression, or Kami only knew what else. She wasn't a brooder like Sasuke, but at the same time, she wasn't used to being...happy. In some ways, she reminded him very sharply of the way Naruto sometimes had acted when he thought nobody was looking, when he was younger, before he became the Prank Master from Hell.

'_What the hell did she face growing up?_' He wondered to himself.

Kakashi had long used the phrase 'Look underneath the underneath.' As such, it wasn't all that hard to look past Naruto's mask when he was younger. Now though, the mask wasn't so much of a mask anymore. But Athan...

Athan definitely wore a mask like the kind Naruto had worn. The fact that she wore a physical mask was something added to it, but there was more to her mask than just what she wore. Although he hadn't watched the goings on, he'd stayed awake for awhile the previous night, and listened in to the conversation between her and Naruto. With him, she seemed to open up a little. But only after she was sure he wasn't going to use it against her. She still seemed ill at ease around the others, and even Naruto, but he was sure he noticed a certain clingyness. Not in the romantic sense, but more in the case of someone hoping to find their first friend in the world ever. Iruka had once told him that Naruto had been much the same way around him and the Sandaime.

This girl had gone through hardship in her youth, and though it might have been similar to what Naruto faced, he was sure there were a few things that were entirely her own problem.

Then again, he'd seen the scrolls after the party. So he thought he had some inkling. But even they didn't tell the entire story. he wasn't sure if he wanted to praise the Hokage for giving him what information on her she could, or curse her for putting him into a situation where he had to adapt to a girl who's needs were perhaps more pronounced and difficult to attend to than had Naruto's.

The real question was, how did a Sentojita's life differ from that of a Jinchuuriki?

And how the hell was Naruto taking this? Assuming he'd read the scroll yet.

They checked into a hotel for the remainder of the day, deciding to head out again first thing in the morning and travel as far as they could at a non-stop pace the coming day. (Athan and Naruto decided to share a room since Athan was completely intent on the 'bodyguard' part of her job description on this trip. Hinata just gave her a jealous stare behind everyone's back.)

Naruto being Naruto, he wanted to find a ramen stand. Athan had sighed in exasperation, told him to stay put, and said she would find a shop that sold the stuff and bring some back for him. He gave her his frog wallet grudgingly, but she refused to budge on his protection and well-being being tantamount. She also pretty much bullied Kakashi into staying with Naruto. How, Naruto didn't know, and Kakashi wasn't telling.

Neji and Kakashi were going to be sharing a room, while Temari, and Hinata and Sakura in the last booked room they had gotten. Temari had gone out, like Kakashi, and Athan on the hunt for some food. She wasn't a fan of Ramen at the moment though. Not that it wouldn't do in a pinch. But she was more in the mood for sushi.

On the subject of Hinata and Sakura...let's look in on them, shall we?

* * *

Sakura was by no means a dispassionate girl. But she was starting to get bored of watching Hinata wear a hole in the floor with her constant pacing.

"Hinata, either tell me what's eating you, or I swear I'm going to stick enough chemicals into your legs that you won't walk for the rest of the week. You've been acting all agitated ever since Naruto's party. What the hell's _eating_ you?" She finally snapped, sitting up and staring a hole into the white eyed girl.

Hinata paced a bit more. She was scowling, a very unusual look for her normally friendly and attractive face. She sighed and then looked over at Sakura.

"Sakura w-what do you think of...of Athan?"

This set Sakura to giggling.

"Ahhh, so _she's_ what you're so worked up over." the pinkette smirked. "Hinata-chan's jealous!" she teased in a somewhat childlike way. It wasn't mean spirited though. But it _was_ fun to see the Hyuuga Heiress blush redder than a tomato.

"I-I am _NOT_!" The white eyed girl shouted back defensively, crossing her arms under her ample chest. Sakura however, wasn't buying the act.

"Hinata, cut it out. Anyone with half a brain knows how you feel about Naruto. ...Which is probably why _Naruto_ doesn't know." She joked. The other girl gave her a half hearted glare, before sighing and crumpling onto her bed.

"It's just not _fair_. Bad enough I haven't seen him for three years, and who knows how many girls are interested in him now after meeting him," Sakura smirked and raised a brow. She still wanted Sasuke back, but even she could admit that Naruto had grown very well. But she thought Hinata might have been overestimating his ability to interact with girls on the romantic level. "And now some...some foreign...foreign..._bitch_ suddenly shows up..." Sakura's eyebrows went almost into her hairline. She'd never heard Hinata insult anyone. Let alone someone she'd only known for less than a day. "And she's living with him now! Kami only knows how many opportunities she'll have to seduce Naruto-kun! And she has no right to him!"

'_Oh yeah. She's got it bad._' Sakura thought to herself, with no attempt to supress the smirk and giggle that emerged from her. Hinata just glared at her again.

"It's not _funny_, Sakura!"

"Yes, it _is_, Hinata." Sakura fired back with a laugh. "Come on. This is _NARUTO_ we're talking about. The guy who crushed on me for years but had no idea how the hell to talk to a girl outside of just approaching her as if she was one of the guys! You honestly think he'd even know what to _do_ with Athan even if she _was_ trying to seduce him? She doesn't want him, Hinata. She's just his Vassal."

"You didn't see the way she was looking at him last night." she countered miserably.

"The hell I didn't. I eavesdropped on at least half their discussion cause it woke me up. Not that I was really sleeping all that well to begin with." Sakura replied. Hinata sat up now with interest. "And I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Naruto has a habit of making friends with people. And whatever it is that those two were doing last night, I can tell you here and now, romantic wasn't anywhere near the top of the list. Though whatever he said at that one point must've been really funny, cause she about keeled over laughing."

Hinata remembered that. She also remembered that Naruto had been pretty much ranting and raving at the silver haired girl about something. But they'd been talking in hushed voices so as not to wake the others, so she hadn't know what they were saying either. And she hadn't thought to use the Byakugan. She'd learned to read lips, but it was a talent she almost never used. And with them facing away from her line of sight (or more specifically, Athan's head obscured Naruto's face from her line of sight), she couldn't have known what they were discussing anyway. But she did remember that moment when Athan had indeed all but fallen over in laughter. It set her teeth on edge.

"It's still not fair. She doesn't even know him. Why of all people would _she_ be allowed to live with him? My father would probably pitch a fit if he knew how I felt about Naruto, but he does that with every guy or girl Hanabi shows interest in." She smirked at Sakura's reaction. "Yes, you heard me. Hanabi's bi. Father almost popped a blood vessel when he figured it out."

"I'll bet." Sakura replied. A wide grin eating her face. "Still, Hinata. How do you figure you have any _right_ to Naruto? Just because she hasn't known him as long as you have doesn't mean she couldn't wind up becoming the one he wants. ...Considering it's been three years, I'm pretty sure he's more or less lost his crush on me, but I don't think he's just going to go after the first girl who comes across him and shack up with her." Sakura gave a sheepish chuckle as she caught the look.

"Okay, bad example, since they live in the same house. But still, they don't sleep together in the same bed, and it's hardly as if you went out and actually staked your claim. Naruto doesn't even know you have romantic feelings for him, Hinata. You know that. But at the same time, I don't think she's going to up and decide she wants him after only really knowing him a day. I mean, what are you going to do? Challenge her for him?"

She did _not_ like the sudden hardness that came to the Hyuuga's eyes after she said this.

'_Oh shit. What the hell did I just unleash?_'

* * *

Meanwhile, as Kakashi and Athan had just left a few minutes ago to find a Ramen shop, Naruto decided that now was the best chance to read through his scroll. Besides, once they got underway again, he was pretty sure it'd slip his mind entirely.

_To Uzumaki Naruto,_

_It is with great hope that this scroll finds you in good health that I write this. I am Arashi Ryo, the seventh Ketsukage of Kagegakure no Sato. I am also the one responsible for sending Athan to you._

_You must have many questions about Athan, and why she has rust colored Chakra. The answer to this is that this is her regular Chakra, which has altered over the years to a color much different from the ordinary type used by the people in the villages in the five Great Shinobi Nations. The cause of this mutation in Chakra color is the fact that Athan is a Sentojita._

As Naruto read onwards, he found himself growing angrier and also more concerned with every word he read. He finally began to understand why Tsunade had gone so pale earlier.

_Sentojita are beings who are, in essence, just what the word means. They are bound, body and soul, with another being. In this case, Athan is bonded to the greatest creation of your demon._

_She carries within her the power and soul of the Shichibi no Senbijuu._

_Youko no Okami_

* * *

_**The Unenviable Author's Post-notes!:**_

And again the plot thickens!

This is your first glimpse at the scroll's contents. More to come.

Minor contest/request:

I cannot draw for CRAP. But I also have no money at the moment. And yet I would love to see some fan art to go for this fanfiction. So I am offering up a chance to get in on being part of this fanfiction's history. I am opening the floor to anyone who can draw extremely well, to have a shot at impressing me with their artwork, and if I like your style, I will give you a description in FULL DETAIL of Athan, rather than the offhanded and incomplete descriptions you've seen of the girl thus far , and the best artwork of her will become the official rendering of her appearance. All you have to do is send me a PM or contact me via my email address (which SHOULD be on my account page), tell me you want to be involved in the contest, and then it's all up to you guys to come up with a good image of Athan. I'll keep this contest open till October 10th, Naruto's Birthday, with the results to be released on october twentieth, and once I figure out how to do it, which I hope will happen quickly, I will post the winning picture up in time for Athan's birthday, which happens to be October 31st.

Furthermore, I am _**NOT**_ sure if the name for this creature is accurate. I have run into a similar logistical problem with phrasing before. But if the phrase is wrong, someone please correct me on it. The name 'Youko no Okami' is to denote that this wolf is the Fox's creation. Any information on this and proper translation is welcomed and appreciated.

Senbijuu, by the way, is a word I made up. The closest approximate translation I can give is Tailed Beasts of War or Tailed Warrior Beasts, or something along the line.


	6. Origin

_**Shadowed Leaf**_

Origin

Standard Disclaimed applies: I don't own Naruto, but anything not from the original series is mine.

* * *

When Athan and Kakashi and Temari returned, Naruto was in a very reflective mood. The scroll had been more than informative. It had detailed just who and what Athan _was_ in as much detail as the Ketsukage had available to him, which turned out to be quite a bit. Kakashi and Temari noticed Naruto's mood and left the room. Athan made her way over to him, a box of take-out in hand, which she set down next to him. He looked up, turned towards the food, and began eating, almost mechanically. He loved Ramen and now was hardly any different, but after all he'd read, some of the thrill of the stuff had deserted him temporarily. Athan had gone to her side of the room, facing away from Naruto, and ate her own Ramen quietly.

After topping off his third and final bowl before Athan had even finished her first, he turned to her.

"Athan?" He said, causing her to straighten up from her slightly slouched position.

"Yes, Naruto-sama?" She asked, still eating.

"Turn around." He said. He couldn't stand it any more. He HAD to know what she looked like. She began to reach for her mask. "Leave it off. And take off the headband, too." He said. This had finally occurred to him, with prodding from Kyuubi, after they had absorbed the information on the scroll. He noticed her stiffen even more.

"H-Hai...Uzumaki-dono..." she stuttered, pulling off her hitai-ate, and turning to face him. He sighed in exasperation at her falling into the habit of calling him _that_ again, but let it slide. Naruto's eyes went wide as he finally got a look at her properly.

The girl had a nearly perfect heart shaped face, and her silver bangs framed and shadowed her forehead. But they couldn't quite hide the markings on it, which appeared to be part of a very large design. Said design was unique. Two large black marks slanting downwards vertically in a 'v' shape ran from forehead to about the length of the bridge of her nose, where it merged into a larger horizontal design that ran across the nose itself and spread to her cheeks. Three larger marks, resembling slash marks rested on either side of her upper face, her eyes planted right between the space between the tope and middle on each side. At her mouth, the sides of this large design briefly spiked inwards around her nose just above it. And at her jaw line, two to each side, were something that could have passed as extremely deep whisker marks, much fuller than his own. She had a pert nose, full, lush lips, and a strong yet feminine chin. With the bangs of her silver hair no longer obstructed at all by the headband, and the rest of it flowing down her back as it had been, it gave her a very captivating presence. Naruto felt his cheeks turn red.

Athan seemed to be blushing as well, though not as much from the fact that she found Naruto attractive (which she secretly admitted to herself that she did, but shoved the idea aside, thinking there was no way her master liked her in _that_ way), but more because of the fact that he was seeing her naked face for the first time, and she felt...self-conscious. She shrunk away from her master, and averted her gaze. Though it took the movement of her head and eyelids to make this known, as given that her eyes were entirely black and thus looked as if they were naught but empty sockets that had a 'wet' look, nobody could really tell where she was gazing. Not so long as none of her doujutsu were active, anyway. And like with the Hyuuga and their Byakugan, the Kokugan was the cause of this appearance of her eyes.

Naruto and Athan stayed like this for a few minutes. Athan looked highly uncomfortable without her mask. And Naruto was pretty sure he understood why. He got up off his bed, and walked towards Athan, who looked nervously at him. What he did next surprised her, as he knelt down on the floor and bowed to her.

"I'm sorry. For everything you went through. It's all my fault." he said. "If there's anything I can do to repay you...make up for it..."

Athan went pale. and she sucked in a breath in horror at this fact.

(Naruto blinked. Was it just him, or did she have fangs?)

She knew that he'd read the scroll while she was gone. That _had_ to be the cause of this. But it wasn't his fault. It just _wasn't_. If anything, Naruto gave her a purpose. She joined him on the floor, kneeling in front of him and gently pulling him out of his apologetic stance.

"Uzu...Naruto-sama...you have nothing to apologize for." She said. She could see the flash of fire behind his bright royal blue eyes, and almost was certain what was coming next.

"But-!" The blonde's words were cut off by a silk soft skinned pair of fingers at his lips, each tipped with a sharp claw.

"I was born for you." She said. "I will fight for you. If necessary, I will _die_ for you. I am yours, because I always have been. Just as she has always been his. He abandoned her, but she never gave up her loyalty. I will not abandon mine." She said, with a surpassing firmness in her tone.

"Athan, you shouldn't feel you _have_ to do anything for me. My father and I...we put you through hell. I'm a Jinchuuriki. I know what it's like."

A few minutes silence hung in the air.

"...October Thirty-first, huh? That's kind of ironic."

She smirked. "I was born for you." Was all she said by way of reply. Naruto couldn't help but give a wry bark of a laugh.

"So...your mark is different." He said lamely. She nodded.

"Hai. Sentojita are different from Jinchuuriki in a lot of little ways. And a few big ones." she grinned. Though it fell away rapidly. "But there are a few similarities I don't want to think about."

"I can imagine. The scroll didn't give me all the answers, but a lot of it was easy to put together."

Indeed, it most certainly was easy to put some of it together. But it was the next few passages of the scroll that made the most impact on the Jinchuuriki and his tenant.

"...Uhm..." Naruto started, but seemed unsure as to if he should continue. Athan blinked at him curiously. "C...could I...could I see it?"

Athan noticeably turned red, but pulled away the flexible armor at her stomach, and lifted her shirt up enough to reveal her belly.

The marking looked like a gothic style roman letter T with two spikes crossed behind it, with the points sitting on either side of the dagger pointed end of the pillar of the T, and rested just above her belly button. All in all, it looked like it could have been a tattoo, rather than the mark of the Sentojita.

* * *

_Doubtless, you wonder what a Sentojita is and how it differs from a Jinchuuriki._ The scroll went on. Naruto had been startled a moment or two at the roar of shock and even anger that had come from Kyuubi at reading that name. _As well as who Youko no Okami is. Let me start by giving you as much background as I can._

_Okami is immeasurably old, yet she is much younger than your Kyuubi no Youko. This is, as I said before, due to the fact that she was created by Kyuubi. From what little she has told us over the years, Kyuubi created her when he was very young. Exactly why he did so, she was never sure. But she served as his Vassal- As Athan now serves as yours- for many hundreds of thousands of years. Okami was created to be a Senbijuu. A creature who existed as both servant and guardian for her creator. The other Bijuu, she would later claim, followed his example. As Kyuubi was a prideful being, he created her to be able to reach a power level roughly eighty percent of his maximum. In other words, where Kyuubi has nine tails, Okami has seven. Hence, she is the Shichibi no Senbijuu, and the strongest of her kind. Whether he intended for her to eventually reach his level of power, or if he was only capable of creating a creature that fell just short of his maximum is something only he would know._

_Eventually, the other Bijuu followed suit, with each baring less tails (usually by two) than their creator, save for Shukaku's creation, whom manifested a half tail. And for a time, it seemed, life was good._

_At some point however, Kyuubi abandoned Okami, and vanished off into the world on his own, as did the other Senbijuu and their creators. While there is precious little known about the fate of the other eight Senbijuu, we are very much aware of Okami's fate._

"_**Fucking duh. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to tell us she was even still ALIVE.**_" Kyuubi grumbled mentally. Naruto, despite himself, chuckled a bit from the Kyuubi's rampant sarcasm.

_At some point many years ago, before any of the Shinobi villages in this continent began their march towards becoming just that, Okami found her way to a small village here in Kurayami no Kuni, and became it's protector. Without Kyuubi to serve and protect, she felt her life had no purpose. When she stumbled upon the village she had come across, it had been under attack by rogue outlaws. This was back in the days when Samurai hadn't been seen for what they were, and many still believed they were heroes. Shinobi were few and far between in those lands, and many of them in our land resided in this village. She came to our defense, driving the outlaws from the village._

_"__**Sounds like something she'd do. Damnable soft-hearted fool.**_" Kyuubi muttered darkly. Naruto was curious, but said nothing.

_Because of Okami's kindness towards us, our village took her in (after much convincing on our parts to get her to agree) and she became the patron saint of our village and lands. _(Here, Kyuubi had let out a half growl half snort of mixed sarcastic derision and anger) _But her first and foremost thoughts were always on the well being of her creator. Once our village was strong enough, we began to send our Shinobi out to locate Kyuubi, so as to have a means of keeping our protector abreast of his movements and doings. Even though she knew he wanted nothing to do with her anymore for whatever reason, knowing his condition at almost all times was enough to set her mind at ease._

_During the time our village had grown to the point where it was a fully functioning Shinobi village, your Shodai Hokage had founded Konoha in Hi no Kuni. Our Shinobi scouts aboard had encountered those of Konoha. And after a few tense months in which neither side was entirely sure whether or not the other could be trusted, an alliance was arranged via marriage between one of our lesser clans, who had begun to develop a lesser version of one of the most deadly doujutsu we'd ever seen, born out of the fact that their blood was so much less suited for the full Limit that a lesser version began to become prominent among them. They branched away from the primary clan from which they were part, and had eventually settled in Konoha after discussing things with our own council of elders and the Sandaime Ketsukage. This particular clan has since risen to great prominence in your village, though there are more than a few schisms within it. Still, they flourish. Though most of them have likely forgotten their origins, I am happy to hear that they have made their own name for themselves._

_Eventually, the orphan known as Namikaze Minato had traveled to Kagegakure to further strengthen the alliance between our lands with the concept of a combined Leaf/Shadow village. Essentially, parts of our lands would be considered the home of an embassy for the Leaf, and the same in Leaf for the Shadow. Unfortunately, this idea, though it gained great support on both sides, has more or less been forgotten in the wake of events which took place in the month and a half preceding your birth._

_You are no doubt very obviously aware of what occurred the early morning of October tenth, in which Kyuubi attacked your village, and the man who you may or may not be aware was your father (Only a few people were informed that he and the love of his life, your mother Uzumaki Kushina, were expecting a child. The Fifth Ketsukage was among that small number, as such, I am aware of it because I had access to his files.), sealed the demon within you._

_What you likely are not aware of however, is that on August fourth, Kyuubi had been nowhere NEAR fire country. In all truth, Kyuubi was to the far north in the Country of Steel. Although we have no idea why he was there, Kyuubi suddenly turned south sharply, making a beeline for Fire Country. To this day even we aren't sure why, but he seemed to be very intent upon the place._

_As we were allies with Konoha, we gave them fair warning ahead of time, but were unable to figure out a means of defense against the creature. Okami refused to have any part in fighting her creator, but did not prevent us from honoring our alliance. (Though it went without saying she was upset with us for raising a hand against her master. )_

_We attempted a joint defense with Konoha at the border to Fire Country, but failed to stem Kyuubi's advance. Those of us who survived were taken into medical care. Eventually, your father sealed Kyuubi within you. However this caused a quandary for Okami._

_Part of her wanted to finish what Kyuubi started and level the village. But she also knew that Kyuubi had been the aggressor, and they were only defending Hearth and home._

Kyuubi was strangely silent.

_At the heart of Okami was the desire to continue to serve Kyuubi. But she knew that she wouldn't likely be allowed to just stroll into the devastated village. Her chakra is demonic, though not malicious, but few Shinobi in that part of the world would have accepted her. And it was feared that she would simply cause the villagers to panic, disregard Sandaime Hokage's protection of you, and try to murder you while you were still an infant._

_The only answer any of us could come up with came from a Yogensha. He was a reclusive hermit who lived in our village, and who had, apparently, foreseen this. He had strange mystical powers no one else in the entire country possessed. His solution was to create a vassal for you, using her very essence as the power source, just as, in many ways, Kyuubi is your own.._

_Rather than a Jinchuuriki, however, he proposed to create something he knew of, but which was very rare, and so far as he knew, had never been attempted with a demon as powerful as Okami:_

_A Sentojita._

* * *

Naruto was pulled from his memory of the scroll by the opening of the door to his room. The two got to their feet before anyone walked in. The person who walked in however, was no threat. It was simply Kakashi, giving one of his now infamous eye smiles.

"Hey you two. I'm going to scout around town for a few hours and see if I can find out anything of relevance to our mission. There's a few places in town where one can get fairly reliable information on almost anything. And then I'm going head to bed. You should relax for a bit and sack out as early as is reasonable. We head out in the morning at first light and head straight for the border." He said. He hated to admit it, but he'd been eavesdropping on the entire conversation, but he felt justified. He knew Naruto well enough to know that the information on that scroll was going to be enough to leave him disturbed as hell until he apologized.

He had to admit he was surprised at Athan's responses to the entire thing though. She honestly seemed scared when he apologized to her, and that struck him as truly sad. Naruto was sincere in his apology, and his belief that what the girl had likely had to deal with as a child was his fault. The way she'd so hurriedly tried to assure him that she was okay with it...

He was sure that she was terrified of him asking her to go away.

* * *

"C-C'mon, Hinata, I was just kidding!" Sakura said with a nervous laugh as Temari came back to their shared room. The blonde haired girl blinked in confusion.

"Did I miss something?" She asked, causing the other two girls to turn her way. Sakura all but glomped the other girl, who had thankfully put her food to the side for the moment, but she was taken by surprise nonetheless. Sakura dragged Temari over to Hinata, looking half exasperated, and half worried.

"Temari, thank Kami you're here! Talk some sense into Hinata would you? She's acting crazy!" the pinkette panted helplessly. "I mean, she's just taking this whole thing too far!"

"Taking _what_ too far?" the sand kunoichi asked.

"I am _not_ taking it too far, Sakura-san." Hinata said before she could get her answer. Both girls were surprised to hear no stutter in her speech for once. "What you said makes absolute sense, and I'm NOT going to just let that...that..._hussy_...just think she can seduce Naruto-kun and get away with it!"

Temari stared for a moment or two, during which Sakura looked at her pleadingly for help...

And then she burst out laughing. Causing the other two girls to look at her in utter confusion at the blonde girl's reaction. 

* * *

_A Sentojita, or Warbound, is a hybridization of human and demon. _The scroll further explained. _However this does not result in a Hanyou. Like yourself, Athan can access the chakra of her tenant, and can use that power to great effect, summoning a number of Okami's tails. But a Warbound differs greatly from either Hanyou or Jinchuuriki, in that a Hanyou is born of a human parent and demonic parent, and a Jinchuuriki is the result of a forcible sealing. In either case, there is no known way for a Hanyou to become fully human or fully demon, and a demon sealed within a Jinchuuriki is subject to the lifespan of the human whom they are imprisoned with until they die. (Yes, at some point Kyuubi WILL be free. Of that, our Yogensha was certain, though he would not say when or how his freedom would come.) A Sentojita is the result of a demon WILLINGLY entering the body of a human and imparting upon them their power, and the demon entity can also emerge from the host at will and act on it's own. Though most are fully content to remain within the gestalt life form they have become with their human counterpart. Each Sentojita has a 'seal' mark on their body (Though the seal is not meant to imprison, but rather to provide a gateway), which again, is similar to the seal you and Gaara carry on your bodies dependent on where they were sealed. In your case, it was your stomach, in Gaara's, his head. Unlike with Jinchuuriki however, these seals do not fade from sight once placed upon a Sentojita, but remain easily viewable. Luckily, the marking for a Sentojita is usually capable of being passed off as a tattoo of some kind._

_However, Sentojita are an extremely rare creature, and they face a unique challenge in that, unlike Jinchuuriki such as yourself and Gaara and Yugito, who carries the two tailed Bijuu known as Nekomata, who have to consciously try to tap into your power and who often have only minor markings that will allow anyone who might know what to look for to notice your status, Sentojita grow up with mutated chakra coils, giving them much more power than ordinary people and even, initially Jinchuuriki, who need to learn to tap their supernatural powers, (though some of them, like Gaara, have powers that are entirely involuntary at first and they must learn to control) the Sentojita is born with distinct markings somewhere on their body (In this case, the markings on Athan's face) which makes it impossible for them to blend into society and pass the marking off as a birthmark. (Though the Yogensha spoke of the fact that some have managed to pass them off as ornate tattoos in places where the people around them don't know what the Sentojita is)_

_Your whiskers are something that could easily passed off as a birthmark, tattoo, or even some form of blade induced injury. However Athan was not so fortunate as she was __**born**__ with Okami within her, unlike with you, as you were born before Kyuubi was sealed within you. In this regard, she is like Gaara, whom became a Jinchuuriki while still in the womb, though Athan's gateway for Okami is the same as your prison for Kyuubi. In any event, her facial markings were with her from the very moment she came from the womb._

_Unfortunately, this also left Athan with a severe problem. Okami was dearly loved by everyone in the village, especially the children. Having grown up as the vessel of a being whom was hated by the village, and who was responsible for the death of the Yondaime, whom Konoha loved and hailed as a hero, I'm sure you can imagine the kind of thing she went through. This was far rougher on her than my predecessor had realized it would be. Although in essence, Athan IS Okami (Her clan having the name as well was a sheer, if ironic, coincidence), she is regarded by much of our village as a murderer. Many feel that if she had not been available so readily, our village would not have lost it's great heroine and immortal protector. They do not realize that Okami is very much alive in Athan and as such is part of her. Unfortunately, unlike with Konoha, no such law was put in place protecting Athan from the villagers, as Okami had made her intentions to become Sentojita with Athan quite plain and it became a moment of significance in our history books and I'm sorry to say, my predecessor did NOT have the foresight to put such a law in place to keep people from abusing her that were at least somewhat effective with you. Only her healing factor prevented her death several times. It took several years before Okami would be capable of actually emerging safely from Athan to protect her if the need arose, and by that point it was already too late. My predecessor DID provide what protection he could, though by this time it was far too late._

_She has lived a hard life because of Okami's willingness to use her for her Warbound. But as you know, depending on the power of the being involved, no ordinary human can handle such a situation safely unless they are very young. This is, sadly, the reason your father was forced to seal Kyuubi into you as an infant. Had he tried to use a condemned criminal, Kyuubi would have immediately shattered the seal and the body of the criminal and been free to wreak further destruction upon Konoha. The same was true for Okami. Only an infant could be used, and naturally, the situation was one of 'the younger, the better'. As it was, most of the children at this point were either too old (to be Sentojita, or else not far enough in the stage of fetal development for it to work. Generally such fusions, as with sealings, can only be done to a child close to birth (such as Gaara) or just newly born, such as yourself. Athan's mother was at roughly two and a half weeks from giving birth, when Kyuubi crossed the border into Fire country and attacked Konoha. She was, unfortunately, our only option._

_Athan was born at the stroke of midnight on the morning of October Thirty First._

_Her mother died two hours later, and the remainder of her family wanted nothing to do with her._

_Thus, like you, she is an orphan._

* * *

Meanwhile, despite Temari assuring Hinata that Athan wasn't about to seduce Naruto anytime soon (though the blonde was halfway toying with the idea of setting her fellow blonde up with Athan on a date just to see Hinata pop a synapse- which she promptly discarded as an idea as a minor wave of jealous snuck up in her own heart), the Hyuuga heiress would not be swayed.

"I am going to make sure that little black eyed tramp knows that he's off limits." she swore to her two roommates solemnly.

* * *

_**The Unenviable author's post notes!:**_

Whew. That was rather wordy. Sorry for the lack of forward movement in the story this chapter guys, but I just was on a roll with the scroll. There's a bit more in the scroll itself, but not as much of it relates too directly to Athan. More to come on that front, but it'll be minor stuff at best.

So, Hinata has definitely gotten past the 'shy and passive' stalker phase into the possessive 'He's Mine, dammit!' stalker phase. Yes, at some point, those two _are_ going to come to blows. Place your bets now, people. The odds makers in vegas await your call. .

Temari is starting to show her interest in Naruto a bit more strongly, though subtly. How will this affect the current dynamic among the group? Hinata is having conniptions over Athan. Can you imagine what'll happen if she finds out Temari _IS_ interested, instead of just worrying that she _might_ be? And for those who think I ruled out Sakura as a potential member of the harem, if I go that route? Wrong. I haven't ruled her out. She simply hasn't shown any interest just yet. That _could_ change.

And now a few things. Number one, Athan's face markings are based on the black sections of the following picture:

http://members(dot)aol(dot)com/Warwolf243/Medallion(dot)jpg

Many of you might remember it as being the design I used in Spirit of Vengeance, if you do, good eye. I plan to go back and finish that story one of these days, but I couldn't resist re-using the design. Another visitor to created two gorgeously done images of the main character of SOV with the markings on his face. However the final image doesn't quite seem as striking as the profile image seen in the sketch he did. However, here are both images. The sketch (especially the side profile) is the better of the two I think, but both are very good.

http://members(dot)aol(dot)com/Warwolf243/Takato(underscore)Spiritsketch(dot)jpg

http://members(dot)aol(dot)com/Warwolf243/Takato(underscore)Spirit(dot)jpg

For those who didn't recognize it, the symbol on Athan's stomach is actually the insignia of WWE's own Undertaker, as seen here.

http://smg(dot)photobucket(dot)com/albums/v189/KingofHearts316/WWEAttitude/th(underscore)UndertakerSymbol(dot)gif

The fanart contest is still open folks, and I've yet to see any entrants! C'mon people, work with me here! I'd like to actually get a picture of her up in time for her birthday!

As a few thoughts:

grey 0 mage: Athan is not a Japanese name, it is a Greek word that means 'immortal' and was a pun on the fact that Athan is a Sentojita, which means she is, in some respects immortal because she is as seen in this chapter, in essence, a demon.

Kai Orihomunon: The Gobi no Bijuu, Houkou, is the five tailed among the BIJUU, not SENBijuu. There is a difference between the two types explained in this very chapter. I also have learned that the five tail is actually a dog, not a wolf, according to the chinese myth upon which the Bijuu are based. So unless Kishimoto-san changed the Gobi from a dog to a wolf, then the five tails is a dog. My Gobi no Senbijuu is something else. Meanwhile the seven tail (Shichibi), Okami, is definitively a wolf. Also, according to my Japanese English English Japanese dictionary, the proper spelling is Okami, which is also probably why the videogame of the same name has the same spelling as the one I use.

Furthermore, after some further research of the legend, I realized I used the wrong number for Okami last chapter (accidentally referring to her as Sanbi, or three tails, when she's actually Shichibi, the seven tails), and have since corrected the oversight.


	7. Cover

_**Shadowed Leaf**_

Cover

Standard disclaimer applies. I don't own anything from the canon, but everything _not _from the original material is all MINE.

* * *

The next three days were a fairly quiet affair by most standards.

Naruto and Athan chatted amongst themselves from time to time, mostly about what life was like in Konoha, seeing as she didn't know anything about the way people went about their lives in town aside from the information gathered by her people on Naruto and his friends. Naruto had spent much of that time telling her about Iruka and Kakashi and Teuchi and the Sandaime and Tsunade and Sakura. Curiously, Athan noted, he almost never broached the topic of Sasuke with her, though Sasuke's name was already in the bingo book. Part of her wondered if it was because for Naruto, losing the closest he had to a brother (other than Gaara, of course) was more than he was ready to deal with even after three years time.

Athan also found time to chat with Temari and Sakura and even Neji. Neji seemed wary of her, but remained polite nonetheless. She frowned behind her mask as she realized what he likely hid behind his Hitai-ate.

'_That has to be dealt with when we get back to Konoha._' She thought to herself. '_There can be no more slavery in that clan._'

Sakura was likely tied with Shizune for the position of Konoha's second best medic Ninja, and was growing by leaps and bounds towards closing in on Tsunade's place at the top of the profession, but you wouldn't know it to talk to her, Athan decided. She studied her medical charts and scrolls as they went along, but she didn't do it to excess. And when she wasn't doing that, she was easily the most sociable girl in the group. Though her attempts at humor weren't the best.

Temari she got along with surprisingly well. The girl was funny, when she wanted to be, and she loved to poke fun in a non-antagonizing way about the fact that she shared the same room and tent with Naruto, even though she knew nothing sexual had gone on. (Though such insinuations still gave Athan a chill of fear she didn't want to dwell on.) She did note however, that Temari sometimes seemed a little bit...jealous?...of the fact that she had occupied the same room as Naruto, and that the two of them spoke the most to each other on their trip out of anyone.

Not to say that Naruto ignored anyone else in the group. Despite the seriousness of the task ahead, they were still days out from their objective and so they had time for idle discussion, and Naruto ignored nobody. He talked to everyone. Sakura had been hard pressed at one point to keep herself from belting the blonde when he started babbling on about...she wasn't entirely sure what he'd been talking about. But she knew it'd had something to do with Jiraiya. But it was the presence of his deadly swift vassal which kept her temper in check. Not that Sakura thought Athan would hurt her, as she was sure Naruto would put a kibosh on that extremely fast, but still, she didn't want to know what she might do if she thought her master was being threatened.

After all, _everyone_ had heard what she'd pulled in the shop on Naruto's birthday by the time they'd departed from the village to undertake this mission. Nobody wanted to risk the silver hair's wrath.

Nobody, that is, except Hinata. The girl was amazingly confusing to Athan. Of all the people she had information about regarding Naruto's circle of friends, she knew her least of all. She knew that Hinata tended to follow Naruto around, watching him train, but beyond her possession of the Byakugan and the fact that she'd been pulped by her cousin during their first Chunin Exam, she knew almost nothing about her, other than the fact that she seemed to like glaring at her a lot, doing so mostly when she thought nobody was looking.

The Hyuuga Heiress was bitingly polite towards Athan, but never seemed to warm up to her. Even Kakashi, who was usually aloof towards strangers, had begun to accept her, seeing as she was now part of the team. But Hinata always kept herself coldly at a distance from her in any discussion if she could help it.

Naruto was confused as hell about it too. He knew Hinata to be a very shy girl, and had never seen her act like this towards anyone. The fact that it was Athan towards whom this darker side of Hinata had been directed made the blonde feel uncomfortable. He didn't know why Hinata didn't like Athan. Hinata was usually the type of person who was willing to find it in her heart to like just about anybody so long as they weren't an enemy. But what problem did she have with Athan?

Naruto, of course, is a very bright boy, but when it comes to girls, sometimes he can be denser than a jar of maiyonaise...or Akane Tendo, whichever has the lower IQ. So naturally, he chalked it up to something to do with the Kokugan, since it made the most sense. Neji had freaked out about it at the party and Hinata had mentioned she had known about it too. He wondered why something about that tickled at his mind. As if some part of him felt he was on the right track.

Kyuubi, meanwhile, aside from wondering how in Kami's name he wound up with such an incredibly stupid when it came to girls vessel he had, was occupied with other thoughts.

Okami was alive.

It was something he never thought would come up again in his life. He'd left Okami behind a long time ago. He'd pushed her out of his mind as much as was feasibly possible. And now here she was again. Not only alive, but having willingly become part of a human, creating a gestalt life form that had access to at least a portion of her power.

And she was now offering her loyalty to Naruto. And him, by proxy.

He wasn't sure what about this entire situation pissed him off more.

* * *

By the time they were three days away from their destination, Hinata was broiling with jealous anger. Although she rationally knew that Athan had not been doing anything to encourage it, Naruto's eye was drawn to her more and more. And, strangely enough, towards Temari as well, as the three got along far easier than she would have ever suspected. Though perhaps this was because of her relationship with Gaara. In any case, she did _not_ like it. Sakura was as much Naruto's teammate as she always was, and they joked and chatted like old friends.

But with Athan...

She didn't know when it had really started, but ever since their stopover in Ore town, Naruto had been spending more time talking to Athan than anyone else. There was something in his eyes she couldn't quite identify whenever he looked at the silver haired girl, and it made her reason fly away in a haze of tinted red.

And he looked at her quite a bit. Hinata hated that.

'_What does he SEE in that little Shadow bitch?_' she asked herself mentally for the hundredth time that day. '_She follows him like a lost puppy, and she never takes off that damned MASK!_'

Indeed, none of the younger Ninja had seen what she looked like. She'd even beaten the opening door which had admitted Kakashi into their room in Ore town. (Or so Athan believed. If he _had_ seen her face, he made no mention of it.) And this infuriated Hinata all the more. Granted, Kakashi never took _his_ mask off either. But Kakashi wasn't the one trying to seduce _HER_ Naruto.

She'd been agonizing over how to get the girl to back off. Maybe even to go back to Kage. But she couldn't think of anything. She was, however, still considering challenging Athan to a fight, just to show her who Naruto belonged to.

'_No. That's not right. He doesn't belong TO me. He belongs WITH me._' Hinata thought to herself. Naruto was his own man and he would resent anyone thinking they owned him, and she didn't want to own hi, She just wanted for him to only look at _her_ with eyes full of love, and nobody else. ...Well, maybe their children, if they had any. The thought brought a blush to her cheeks.

Over the last few days Neji had been giving her the evil eye. And it didn't take a genius to know the reason. Sakura had caught him when he was alone on watch their second night out past Ore town, and had told him of Hinata's troubling views towards Athan. Hinata had seen them discussing it from her tent, where she'd been using the Byakugan to make sure Athan didn't try anything with Naruto. Once she'd become certain the silver haired Kage girl and her love were sleeping and nothing more, she had been about to deactivate her doujutsu when she'd noticed the two of them outside talking, and using her training to lip read, had easily figured out the topic of discussion.

It just made her angrier. She understood, on a logical level why the two were concerned. Her current feelings were enough to frighten even her, and yet she still couldn't help what she was feeling. Bad enough Naruto was finally starting to look at girls as potential mates instead of just someone he might have an infatuation with, but out of nowhere comes this exotic girl whose face possibly not even he had seen, and he was spending almost all his time with her!

"Leave her alone, Hinata-sama." A voice behind her whispered softly. She spun in shock and found her cousin behind her, giving her a stern look. "I don't understand all the ins and outs of it, but that girl and Naruto have a special rapport. If it becomes something more is for the future to decide. But don't let your misplaced jealousy overcome you. This mission is our top priority. I'm sorry to say it, but had I known this would be your reaction to Athan's presence, I would have requested Hanabi accompany us instead."

Hinata was about to reply when he held up a hand. His eyes, though sympathetic, were firm. "You have feelings for Uzumaki. That's understandable. But instead of taking your frustrations on your inability to tell him how you feel on her, you should try channeling that anger into thinking up a way to finally tell him how you feel.

"B-But what if he wants her? I don't think I could handle that, Neji-niisan..." she mumbled, her feelings of inadequacy, both as a woman and as a Hyuuga flaring up again after so long. "I just want her to stop trying to seduce-"

"Oh grow up, Hinata." He interrupted her. "She's not trying to do that and you know it. She's technically his _property_ Hinata. She's his servant. She's not trying to seduce _him_ any more than anyone in the branch house is likely to try to seduce you. The only major difference between the branch house and Athan is that Athan seems to _prefer_ her role as a slave."

She flinched. He may have stopped being so cold towards the main house, but he still resented the caged bird seal, still resented the fact that he was, in essence, a slave to the whim of anyone in the main house of the Hyuuga clan, and he never made any bones about it.

* * *

On day eight, Kakashi dropped the bomb.

"Say. That. Again?" Hinata and Naruto said simultaneously. Then glanced at one another. Their reactions were distinctly different, and their tones were also different. But then they turned their gaze to their commanding jounin.

"You heard me. Because of the fact that these Ninja have been on alert lately and attacking more and more often, we need to go undercover, and this village we'll be aiding is part of a country where slavery of various types, from indentured servitude to sexual slavery- which sometimes walk hand in glove here- is very much the rule of the day, we need to go undercover. I received this information from Hokage-sama herself, but she requested I keep it under wraps until we got about a day or so out from it. Generally, older men, such as myself, are considered to be passable as elderly men of state, due to the fact that Ninja themselves are rare in this part of the world, and none are younger than twenty two. Anyone younger than that who comes this way is usually a wealthy young traveler. Again, these travelers usually have servants or slaves. Sometimes both. Although seeing such people being able to fight isn't uncommon, what is more common is a traveler with bodyguards." He said, running through his explanation again.

"Naruto will play the part of such a wealthy young traveler. Athan will be his personal right hand slave-slash-Bodyguard, two of you will join her in this post as recently hired bodyguards who happen to be free women, and the third will simply be a mutual acquaintance of myself and Naruto's who is hanging out with me as she's on vacation. I will play the role of a Ninja who is also on vacation, who is helping out Naruto, who is a friend of the family, on his journey since I have nothing better to do."

"Exactly where am I supposed to be 'journeying' _to_, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, a brow raised, and then snorted. "And what about Neji? How do we explain him away?"

"Neji will be playing the role of a traveling martial artist searching to improve his skills in Taijutsu." Kakashi replied. "As for yourself, Naruto, you're a wealthy traveler. Basically you're going to be going wherever the hell you damned well please, because you can afford it."

"But I _can't _afford itKakashi-sensei! How am I supposed to play myself off as some rich guy, when I don't have the money to back it up!?"

Kakashi just stared at him in amusement, and then began laughing. Neji joined in on it.

"OI! What the hell is so funny?!" Naruto demanded, huffing, arms crossed over his chest.

"You have access to the entire estate of your parents Naruto. This INCLUDES their bank accounts. Sandaime-sama and Tsunade-sama kept it open for you, as well as keeping anyone from buying the land. As a result, you _are_ indeed a very, _VERY_ rich young man who can do just about anything he wants to now." Kakashi said with a chuckle at Naruto's expression. "Furthermore, once Tsunade-sama had placed the estate in your name, she added your own account into theirs. Trust me Naruto. for you, money is no longer a problem, and likely never will be again. You have several hundred million ryou to your name. You could probably buy out half the village real estate back home and not even put a scratch in your account. And beyond that, there's also that necklace Tsunade-sama gave you, which happens to be enough to buy three mountains if you wanted. Obviously you wouldn't be selling that off, given it's sentimental value to the both of you. But to put it frankly Naruto? You are _LOADED_." The Copy Ninja finished.

Naruto promptly fainted.

"He took that better than I thought he would."

* * *

After about an hour, at which point everyone was sure Naruto wasn't going to pull another gulliver on them at being told that no, what Kakashi had told him was _not_ a hallucination and he really did have access to such a sizable fortune, they stopped in the next town on their way to their target destination. Here, everyone shed their Hitai-ate, save for Kakashi, who was going to be 'hiding in plain sight' as Naruto's old friend and travel companion. Athan had ducked out of sight and come back out wearing a more civilian type headband, covering the upper half of her face just as well as her Hitai-ate had, of course her eyes being exposed as always. Neji wore something similar to hide the caged bird curse seal. The rest of Athan's gear, she was told, would work fine for her role as bodyguard/slave. Though she would have to also be equipped with a few other items.

"What kind of items?" She asked as this was brought up.

"Well, considering that even with the armor, anyone who can look underneath the underneath would expect you to be a fairly attractive looking girl. Most female slaves are supposed to be, and seeing an unattractive slavegirl is a true rarity anywhere in the world where it's practiced. However most slaves usually bear a collar, and the majority of slave owners usually have at least one other purpose in mind for female slaves, even those strong enough to be bodyguards. We're here now because Naruto has to buy all this stuff. The only thing he doesn't have to buy is the collar." Kakashi replied, pulling one out of his backpack. The collar was fairly typical bondage fetish fare, with a small plate engraved with the words 'property of Uzumaki Naruto' on the very front of it, and a d-ring looped in front of that at the bottom of the collar.

Athan's eyes went wide and she seemed to go pale, from all anyone could see of her flesh , which was precious little. (They had to go by the sudden whitening of her hands and ears to even notice it). But she recovered quickly, and nodded stiffly. Then took the item from Kakashi, who was giving her a very piercing gaze, and slipped it around her neck.

Naruto gave her a very hard look from the side. Temari was also scrutinizing the silver haired girl.

"I'll volunteer to be one of Naruto's other bodyguards." The Sand jounin said. The rest of the group looked at her in surprise. Nobody argued the matter though.

"Seeing as I've been Naruto's teammate since the word go, I think I should take up the other bodyguard role." Sakura said, beating Hinata to the punch, as she'd opened her mouth to do so. She closed it, a look of disappointment on her pretty features, caught by Kakashi. But he dismissed it. He knew how she felt about Naruto, almost anyone with half a brain who knew the two long enough knew it. _Which probably explains why NARUTO doesn't know._ Kakashi thought to himself humorously, unknowingly repeating in his mind the very exact same words Sakura had said to Hinata a few days back. Not that he thought Naruto was stupid. Just dense when it came to girls. Though his recent reactions to Athan had proven that he was starting to come out of that phase, and he suspected some of that had to do with Jiraiya.

"Well, Hinata, I guess that leaves you to play the role of the mutual acquaintance that ties us all together. Since you and Neji have the same eyes, it's safe to play you off as family, which we would have had to do in all likelihood anyway. This actually works in our favor, as I had actually forgotten about that minor detail. We can modify the cover to that of you knowing all three of us and having only vague interactions with Temari, Sakura, and Athan. Now, we need to get the rest of the gear for Athan."

That said, they went shopping. Athan traveled at Naruto's side as a slave would, which is to say, she wasn't acting all that differently from her Vassal behaviors, other than showing a much more submissive streak. Kakashi prayed that this was just her putting on a really good show, and not her acting like this due to past experience. _That_ would be beyond heartbreaking.

After gathering a large amount of slave gear (and some stuff that a wealthy slave owner with an attractive girl to call his personal property would be expected to own for use in the bedroom- again Athan had gone pale when hearing this explanation for why it was needed.) and some weapons and clothes, the group changed into new attire bought for the purposes of the trip, save for Kakashi. As they traveled, they discussed their cover a bit more. Nobody was particularly happy with the idea of a slave town, but they figured beggars couldn't be choosers.

Finally, they arrived at the place where they were to meet their contact. He turned out to be a civilian member of the village who had hired them. He looked the girls over and nodded appreciatively. His eyes came to rest on the collar Athan wore now and then looked askance at the men.

"Which of you is Uzumaki?" He asked. Naruto raised his hand with a cheery laugh. The man looked them over, eyes resting on each in turn, and then blinking at Athan's collar and smiling, before his look turned into a somewhat perverted leer. "She's your slave?" he asked. Athan flinched, but Naruto just gave him a hard look, and nodded.

"Yeah, she is. And I'll thank you to keep away from her." The blond snapped. "After all, I didn't buy her just for someone else to go pawing all over her or giving her that kind of look." Inwardly, Naruto was disgusted with himself for what he was saying, but he knew that playing the role half assed was going to lead to blown cover. As such, he threw himself all in. "Of course, if you're stupid enough to try to put your hands on her anyway...well, she IS a trained killer, and would break your back in fifteen different places before you hit the ground with my permission."

This seemed to be the reaction their contact was looking for. He nodded, and turned to Kakashi and smirked, then motioned with his head to follow him. They did.

* * *

After another day's travel, they arrived in their target destination: Hedon City. Easily thrice the size of Konoha, the place was different only in the fact that it appeared to have no Shinobi to call it's own, and the youngest Shinobi there aside from themselves was about Kakashi's age. As he had said, there were few of them there, none younger than twenty two years of age. And, sadly enough, it seems slavery was very much in vogue here. Some men had two or three to their name. Naruto sighed, still holding the leash attached to Athan's collar.

'_Kami above, I want to beat these people's heads in._' The blonde thought to himself.

"_**I dunno, I could get to like it.**_" Kyuubi responded in his mind.

'_For the sake of my sanity,_ _I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that_'

"_**Killjoy.**_"

The group went and got themselves checked into the fanciest place in town. Naruto, having a large entourage with him, got one of the suites, which was in itself a small mini-hotel within the hotel, enough to house at least four times their number. Much to his displeasure, the suite also included a place for slaves to be...used...in what appeared to be a variety of ways.

"These people are sick." he muttered to himself.

"Amen." Athan had whispered hoarsely.

"Be that as it may," Kakashi said once the group had toured the place. "You're going to need to make some use of this place, I'm sorry to say. Part of the cover." He also looked as though the place left a bad taste in his mouth though. Reading about it in Icha Icha Paradise where it was consensual on both sides was _one_ thing. But a city where it was legal, in some cases practically _MANDATORY, _ and enforceable by law?

'_Naruto's right. These people ARE sick...or are they actually more sane than we are? We send people out at Kami knows how old to become KILLERS. These people simply make sex a part of everyday life, and all it takes is a collar around the neck, same as a Ninja only needs a headband to be part of a legal network of assassins..._'

Needless to say, this thought did not bring the Copy Ninja any comfort.

"In fact, my sources say that the first things slave owners in these territories do when they settle into a place for the night is...uhm...well, I think you can guess. Appears to be some kind of tradition. If a slave isn't used in a place like this when they rolled out the red carpet for you...they kinda take it as an insult..." he continued. "So...uhm...well, I guess Neji and Hinata and I will scoot off to our rooms elsewhere in the suite...and I suppose Temari and Sakura will have to keep nearby but..."

"I really don't think they'd want to see this, Kakashi-sensei." Muttered the blonde Chunin.

Temari had raised a brow that seemed to indicate otherwise. "We _are_ supposed to be your bodyguards, Naruto...we should probably just stay outside the door while you ...uhmm...make use of your.." she cleared her throat and blushed. "Slave..." Truthfully, part of her was repulsed by the concept, yet somehow, it also intrigued her.

It didn't hurt matters that what she'd seen had lead her to believe Athan was _hot_.

Yes, the Blonde Kunoichi of Suna was Bi. She just didn't like to admit this fact to people. Mostly because there were so few girls in Suna that had caught her eye.

* * *

After a few minutes in which everyone went their separate ways in the suite (Hinata redder than the dwarf sun of Krypton and having to be all but dragged away by Kakashi and Neji), The Jinchuuriki and the Sentojita were left, in essence, alone, save for a peeking Temari who was indulging her inner pervert for once, and doing her utmost to hide her presence from the two.

"Uhm...so..." Naruto started, blushing hotly. Athan just looked around at pretty much anything _other_ than her lord and master, also extremely flushed looking.

Two minutes passed.

Then five.

At the ten minute mark, Temari was starting to wonder if the two had petrified.

Finally, Naruto decided it would be best to just get it over with.

"Athan..."

She looked at Naruto out of the corner of one of her jet black eyes.

"Take off the armor..."

Athan shivered, but nodded in compliance.

"H-Hai, Uzumaki-dono..." she stammered, beginning to remove her armor. Naruto watched, trying to seem dispassionate about this entire situation. But after several days of talking with Athan (though he'd been careful _not_ to pry into her past, and had instead kept the discussion on what he considered safer topics), and nights filled with sexual images inserted into his mind by Kyuubi, both gentle and somewhat more brutal, Naruto figured that there was little better way to deal with this situation than to play the role to the hilt, and hopefully, this would get the fox to back the fuck off about this. Soon enough she was free of the armor, and clad only in her clothes, and she seemed reticent about removing anything more. Naruto could understand that. Too bad it seemed he would have to order her to strip naked...even if a large part of his psyche (not counting Kyuubi himself) did want to see her stark naked.

But then...a grin spread across his face.

'_Kakashi-sensei said I had to make USE of Athan. He never said that that necessarily meant sex._'

Clapping his hands together, he laughed. "Okay! Now that you've got that out of the way, we can do some training!"

Athan, Sakura, and Temari collectively facefaulted from their respective positions.

"He's _got_ to be kidding!" Temari whispered to herself, feeling a bit let down by this turn of events. Sakura just grinned.

"That's Naruto for you." she said, then smirked. "Pervert." she added, playfully.

Temari had the good sense to blush.

* * *

_**The Unenviable Author's post-notes!**_

Ha! Gotcha didn't I? Yes, there _will_ be lemon in this fic. That's a given, but even though he's a touch perverted from his time alone with Jiraiya on that training trip, Naruto's not really sure he's ready for that yet. He just turned sixteen, after all. But yes, a lemon or two is on the way. When? You'll have to wait and see.

Next chapter: Things get under way as the mission begins, and we get to see something people have doubtlessly been interested about since this little adventure began.

Hinata vs. Athan

I'm still waiting on some entrants for the contest folks. Due to the lack of them, (there hasn't been a single entrant yet) once the contest closes, any future work will be enjoyed, but in all likelihood isn't going to be official. Get in on the contest now while you can. Refer back to chapter five's author notes to see what to do.

Furthermore, like so many others, I have come up with a forum for my fic!

http:// www . fanfiction . net /forum/TheShadowsoftheLeaf/37141/ (just remove the spaces.)


End file.
